Disclaimer: All characters pertaining to Pitch Black belong to USA Films.

Monsters in the Night (Part 5)

Lattelady

Author's Note: Please excuse my tiny reference to Aeryn Sun; it seemed to write itself. The quote that Imam uses is from Auguries Of Innocence by Robert Blake

As the Sandcat raced the darkening sky to the crash ship, all eyes except Shazza’s were glued to the spectacle of the huge ringed planet rising over their right shoulder. It was going to be a close run, but the dark-haired woman had been handling equipment like the ‘cat since she was a child. Zeke’s death had turned the bouncing trip over uncertain ground into a personal vendetta she didn’t plan to lose.

It took all her skill to maneuver through the canyon of bones and not lose speed, but she did it. The sand hills that followed were equally treacherous, but the ‘cat responded like the animal it was named after, and always landed on its feet. Her hands fought the wheel over each bump and rut-hole, until they skidded to a halt in the shadow of the dead ship. In another life, in Uncharted Territories she would be called Chick With A Gun, but here she was the Settler Woman, and bloody proud of it!

Jack leapt out of the vehicle and stood in awe of the spectacular show nature was putting on. Her brain told her it spelled disaster for them, but another part of her, that she had always refused to listen to, kept her rooted to the ground staring off to the horizon. She was a child who had seen little beauty and almost no kindness in her life, to be met by the stunning play of size, color and movement, left her speechless. It touched her and changed forever her yardstick of possibilities.

She was vaguely aware of the others’ frantic movements toward the H-G, and Paris shouting something, as he ran to the pod in the distance, but the teenager was still trying to process all she was seeing. It wasn’t until Shazza turned the ‘cat around and pulled it close to her, that the spell was broken. Danger, a little voice shouted in her brain. That was something she was well acquainted with, danger and fear. She mentally kicked herself for standing there like a tourist and not helping with the job that needed to be done. Since they had awakened from cold sleep the adults in the group had treated her as a person, instead of the indentured foster child she was. It was the first time in her life that grown-ups had shown her any consideration, and she didn’t want to let them down by acting like a scared kid.

In an attempt to do something to help, and to take her mind off the coming darkness, Jack jumped into the rear of the Sandcat. She pulled a rag from her pocket and wiped the dust off the cover on the solar battery, winning a reassuring nod from the woman in the driver’s seat. It surprised the young girl how much the small gesture form Shazza calmed her fears and helped steady her nerves.

All the while Riddick was pulling cells from the ship; he couldn’t get his mind off the black box in his pocket. Fuck we cut it too close! Gotta load the power. Gotta put the box back in place! In his hurry he hefts two 35-kilo cells, one on each shoulder, and hauled them out to the waiting ‘cat. But time had run out! Before he could head to the bridge and do what needed to be done, the dense rings that surrounded the huge planet slid past the sun, signaling the beginning of the eclipse.

The results caught them all by surprise, but it shouldn’t have. One minute there was the whir of the solar battery, the pounding of running feet, and of heavy cells being dropped in the load bed, the next all was quiet, as nine people stared at the sudden fall of twilight. Shazza softly cursed as she tried to make the ‘cat’s engine jump to life without fuel. A fruitless task, but one she couldn’t stop herself from trying anyway.

Then they heard it, the voices of the damned as they began to sing. Fry paled as she recognized the clicks and pops that accompanied the almost mechanical hum. She had heard the sound twice before, once in the Coring Room, and once as it echoed back at her from the depth of the hole where she had gone in search of Zeke’s body. Even though she had seen the destruction the creatures could reap, she was pinned in place by the delicate beauty of hundreds of them as they arched skyward. She thought she heard Richard whisper something, but her senses were too overloaded by the sights and sounds in front of her hear what even he was saying.

It was Imam’s voice that finally caught her attention. “’Every night and every morn, some to misery are born. Every morn and every night, some are born to sweet delight. Some are born to sweet delight; some are born to endless night. We are led to believe a lie, when we see not thro’ the eye, which was born in a night, to perish in a night, when the soul slept in beams of light.’”

At first she thought the Holyman was intoning a prayer, but the words played along her brain, until their meaning sunk in, and she began to tremble. She bit her lip to keep from calling out the man’s name that meant safety. He had made it clear he wanted no part of her, and she refused to make a fool of herself again.

She didn’t remember Paris’s frantic call, or running toward him. She had felt a surge of adrenaline, her legs pumped and her heart raced. Then she was standing with most of the others in the protection of the pod, while Richard and Shazza were trapped on the ground half way between them and the ship. Her mouth went dry as her lips moved in silence, “please Richard don’t move, stay put, stay, both of you.”

Time alternately crawled and flew as she watched the scene that was played out on the desert floor. Then the waiting was over! Hundreds of the bird-like aliens swooped and dove around the two left in the open. In her fear Shazza had tried to out run them, and in a blinding second she was torn apart, meters from safety. The moment played over and over in Carolyn’s mind. She saw clearly what it must have been like for Zeke, and what was in store for all of them, if something wasn’t done quickly.

The others moved inside the pod, but her legs would hardly hold her. It was too easy to picture Richard being carried off in bloody pieces as Shazza had been. Leaning against the door to catch her breath, she hoped she looked casual instead of scared. Her eyes glued to Riddick’s slow walk toward her. Then there was only him and the quiet all around them.

He had seen fear before; it was a byproduct of his trade. He thought he recognized it in all its forms, but the look on Carolyn’s face was something new. He slid his goggles off to see better in the darkening shadows, but it didn’t help. She was scared, almost too scared to stand, but it wasn’t of him or the aliens. It was a kind he had never encountered before. He wanted badly to reach out for her, and wipe the panicked look from her face, but he stopped himself. When the noises started again, he took a deep breath as they both turned to stare out into the darkness. It had been a close call. If they hadn’t been interrupted, he knew she would be in his arms, and he had worked too hard in the skiff to let that happen again.

“Richard, what is it?” Carolyn watched blindly as the sounds grew to crescendo proportions “What is it now?”

He was lost in the site of the creatures breaking through the spires of mud and rock that had protected them from the light. Thousands of them began to take to the air, escaping their underground prisons. Riddick’s stomach knotted when he realized that he had sent Carolyn down in one of those things, but he couldn’t take his eyes off the beauty of their dance as they gloried in the night. It was easier to watch the monsters from hell weave complicated patterns in the sky, than to face what was really bothering him and deal with the woman whose scent was making him hard even as he stood there watching death dancing high above them.

“Like I said, it ain’t me you gotta worry about.” He had his bad boy attitude tight in place, so he turned back to the woman close beside him. It surprised him to find her looking with fascination into the distance that was too dark for her to see. The haunting fear of a minute ago replaced with determination.

“I never did worry about you, until five minutes ago.” She whispered. The sound of his voice had shifted her attention back to him. Her hand moved of its own accord and touched his lips, causing the tough expression on her fact to crack, and become open and soft, filled with remnants of the fear he had seen before.

“Carolyn,” he rasped out her name as he reached for fingers that he wanted to kiss, but refused too. As the last of the light faded, it hit him like a blow to the back of the head; the fear on her face had been FOR him! She had stood there, and had worried about him when he was trapped out on the sands. It humbled him to the morrow of his bones, and he was glad for the total darkness as the last of the sun slipped behind the ringed planet. Only he could see in the blackness that followed, so if his face wasn’t as schooled, as he would have liked, it didn’t matter this once.

She was badly shaken; he had seen it in the last of the light. It was a mirror of what he was feeling, and he wasn’t sure how to deal with that. Death had whizzed past him so close that he could smell it and for the first time in his life, it mattered. Because it did, they needed to get in-doors. He didn’t want to break off contact with her so he reached for her cheek and lightly caressed it as his arm moved around her. For a moment he felt her lean against him before she took a deep breath and turned in his arm. Together they took the first step toward the pod. His hand rested on the small of her back; her shoulder tucked gently under his. As they moved to safety, he knew that something had changed for Richard B. Riddick, and that frightened him more than anything else on this planet.

…………………………..

“Remember the bone yard? These just may be the fuckers that killed every living thing on this planet.” Johns held up a light as the group gathered together, a few feet from the entrance to the pod, the door locked tight. Then the noises started. They sounded close, almost inside the cargo carrier, as well as all around the outer walls.

Riddick scanned the interior, but even his shine-enhanced vision couldn’t pick out any movement in their space. As he moved away from the light to get a better look, he felt Carolyn close behind him and held out his left arm to keep her from moving ahead. He didn’t question why he needed to protect her. It was a delicate balance between caring too much and keeping her at a distance. He was a man who didn’t know shit about being delicate, and even less about caring!

Her slim hand gripped his arm and for the first time he had a taste of what it was like to face danger with someone standing beside him. He looked down at her face close to his shoulder, and could see she was afraid, but would have pushed ahead, if he had let her. How could fear of the aliens make her stronger, while fear for him had made her almost helpless? It didn’t make any sense. Fear was fear, wasn’t it?

Carolyn felt Richard cover her hand with his as they moved. She trusted him to be their eyes, but she wouldn’t let him search alone. When she bumped against his back, and his grip tightened on her hand to keep her close at his side, she knew something was very wrong.

Standing complete still, with the light from the group behind them Riddick could feel the danger ahead. “Come on Johns, you got the big gauge, why don’t you led?” He pushed at the man who was standing safely behind all the others, while holding the large automatic shotgun.

“I’d rather piss glass,” Johns called out as the group separated and the clicks and scratches intensified, a few feet in front of Riddick and Fry. Here’s my chance, he grinned as he raised the weapon. Take them both out in one shot! Get the bitch and the convict! Yeah! His morphine deprived mind roared in tune with the shotgun blasts.

Riddick quickly tackled Carolyn and hit the deck. He tried to take the impact of the fall with his body before he rolled her beneath him. The bounce and ping of pellets whizzed over his head, and the screech of one of the creatures being hit caught them all by surprise.

“Sorry about that boy, didn’t mean to cut it so close.” Johns’s voice echoed through the pod in the silence that followed. Damn I missed! Need a spike, before that crazed killer comes after me! I won’t miss then just need that spike.

“Damn idiot!” Riddick shouted as he ran his hands over the woman beneath him to be sure she was unharmed.

“Don’t.” Carolyn whispered as she gripped his shirtfront. She had felt his shift in weight and knew he was going after Johns. “Don’t give him the excuse.”

He nodded, because he knew she was right, but hated it. “You okay?” He rolled off of her and pulled her to her feet.

“Yeah, thanks.” She smiled at him then threw back her head and marched the short distance to Johns. “You fucker! What kind of idiot stunt were you trying to pull?” Her eyes shooting fire as she gave the redhead a thump on the shoulder. “Now give me that gun before you hurt someone with it.”

“No way Fry!” He ground his teeth and stared her down. In the light from the flashlight he could see the bruise he had put on her jaw and his hand itched to repeat the performance. “This is my shotgun. If you want it, it will be over my dead body.”

“That just might be able to be arranged.” She stood on her toes so she was inches away from his face. His eyes were bloodshot and she could see a twitch at the corner of his mouth. He was out of control and it worried and disgusted her.

“Ha,” he laughed. “We both know you got it in ya, but can you do it with an audience?” He sneered, as she grew pale. Oh Carolyn, I know just which buttons to push with you. You’re mine now bitch.

“People, we really should be moving along,” Paris watched nervously as Riddick moved further into the pod, followed by Hassan. Imam was frantically trying to cut through the wall, into the next container while he kept a close watch on Jack and Rashad, but he stopped a moment and nodded approval to Paris.

“I think we must assume that there are move of those things in here.” The Holyman returned his attention to his work. The more afraid he was the more he had been praying, but somehow he found that keeping his hands busy kept his fear at bay better than all the prayer in the world. Ahh so that is how You answer my prayer, he smiled to himself and concentrated on the torch with more diligence. God was telling him to work, so work he would.

“Must be a hull breach,” Fry moved behind him and held a light to make his job easier. She smiled at Rashad and patted Jack’s shoulder. “How you doin, Jack?” The young boy was broken up over Shazza’s death. It seemed out character, but who was she to judge anyone’s character.

Suddenly the atmosphere in the pod seemed to change. A strange fear gripped Carolyn and she looked around and did a quick head count. Riddick and Hassan were missing! “Richard,” she called out, not realizing she had used his first name.

“Don’t stop burning,” his deep voice answered. Its slow quiet cadence made her shudder.

Riddick’s soft words were the signal for all hell to brake lose. A high-pitched scream, and running feet, punctuated by the odd alien clicks and pops, filled the air. Johns moved in the direction of the noise, his light shining brightly in front of him and his shotgun raised. For one moment he had the satisfaction of hearing Riddick gasp in pain as the bright light hit his uncovered shined eyes. So sorry about that boy, the bounty hunter mused as he continued down the aisle and began shooting anything that moved.

Ten minutes later they were barricaded into the last compartment of the pod. Riddick watched as Fry did her usual head count, a look of sorrow crossed her face at Hassan’s lose, but he could tell she was relieved that only one had died. He was proud of her as she went into action and began inventorying their light sources. He knew as she did, that their only hope of survival was to get back to the skiff.

“The plan, we stick to the plan!” Fry tried to reassure the others.

“Those things are phobic about light, I say we sit here and wait until the sun comes back up.” Johns was damned if he was going to let some bitch that scared too easily gamble with his life.

“I had the impression from the model, the two planets were moving as one and there would be lasting darkness.” Imam’s words painted a picture of calamity on an Old Testament scale.

“These suns have got to come up something. We just sit tight and let the sun come up.” Johns needed a spike and his fingers itched to reach for the cartridge container in his pack, but he couldn’t until he had a moment alone. That wasn’t going to happen as long as Fry was pushing them to move on.

“I’m sure somebody else said that, locked in that Coring Room.” Her challenge was written all over her face. From the distance Riddick wanted to warn her that Johns was too close to the edge to be pushed, instead, he stepped closer to the merc incase he needed to intervene.

“We need to think about everybody now, especially the kid, how scared’s this boy going to be out there in the dark!” That sounded good to him. Make her look like the selfish bitch she was.

“Don’t use him like that!”

“Like what?” Johns played dumb.

“As a smoke screen. You deal with your own fears!” Fry realized there was no way around it. It wasn’t going to be pretty. Better now, then out there, halfway to skiff. Nip this coward in the bud right here and now!

Riddick stood and watched as Fry fought Johns for control of the group. It had the potential to turn real nasty, so he carefully gripped the handle of his shiv, incase words weren’t enough of a weapon. Moments later he saw the slight movement of the shotgun, but only because he was standing almost on top of the merc. What surprised him the most was that he had taken an involuntary step forward, and to the left. He had blocked the gun with his body. For a moment his head swam as he realized what he had done. Then he felt the cold muzzle of a side-by-side digging into his neck.

A smirk crossed Johns’s face at the joy he would get from blowing Riddick’s head off. Why didn’t the man look afraid? He had him? Johns watched as Riddick pushed his goggles up to his forehead and smiled. It was then that he felt the slight tapping on his crotch. It made his blood run cold as he lowered his eyes and saw Riddick’s shiv point moving against his balls.

“This solves nothing!” Imam shouted at the two men, then turned to Fry. “Are you sure you can get us there, even in the dark?”

“No, I can’t, but he can.” She looked to Riddick. Their eyes met for a moment. It frightened him when he though of the trust she was putting in him, but he nodded slowly as if seeing her for the first time.

Johns stood back and watched the interchange between the man and the woman. What was going on here? What had he missed? Then he remembered earlier she had called the bastard Richard? Though his blood cried out for a spike, he hadn’t been born yesterday. The pieces began to float in slow motion through his brain. Riddick had been missing while she did that long systems check. She had mumbled something about having some problems with it, but had never explained what took her so long. When she had attacked him in the storage room and pinned him with her knee, he had thought the scent of sex on her had been his own wishful thinking. Why you disgusting bitch, he grinned. If she was desperate enough for a fuck that she’d screw that scumbag convict, it should be easy for him to get a piece of ass before he killed her. Maybe even while he killed her, that’d be a real ball banger!

And Riddick, how could he use this to twist the knife in him before he killed him? Johns grinned at the larger man’s back, as he thought of the implications of what he had just seen. The convict had been willing to take the hit for his bitch. Not once, but twice he had stood between the woman and a shotgun. Was the icy killer using her or had she been hot enough to break through the man’s barriers? Who’ee Carolyn I’d hate to be in your shoes when the shit hits the fan! I got you both now.

………………………..

The trip through the night to the Hunter-Gratznia went better than any of them could have imagined. It added weight to Fry’s claim that they could make it back to the skiff. For the first time since Shazza died, Jack felt renewed hope. She knew she had let her tough guy attitude slip, but so far they all still believed she was a boy. She smiled to herself at her stroke of genius: imitating Riddick. At the time she had shaved her hair and donned the look-alike goggles, she had told her self it fit with her image of a rebellious teen-age boy. Now she realized it had been more than that. The Convict was the strongest personality she had ever met. On the run as she was, she needed all the illusions of strength she could muster. Since she knew the adults better, she realized that she was safe with them even as a girl, but a lie once started took on a life of its own and there was no stopping it.

While most of the group removed the internal lighting from the ship, Riddick went to the bridge. He was tempted to turn off the emergency beacon, to lessen the chance that the ship would be found by anyone, but as long as it broadcast, it would give the raiders something to concentrate on while they made their get-away in the skiff.

He worked quickly trying to repair the damage that had been done when he removed the black box from its complicated circuitry. He knew he could put it back, but if there were an inspection of the console anyone with a bit of knowledge would be able to tell that the box had been removed. He rocked back on his heels to weigh the possibilities. Which would be the less damaging to Carolyn? Leave a box that had been tampered with, a sure signal to the Company that it had been found; or remove it? The second option had the advantage of destroying any evidence of Fry’s actions during the crash. But a missing box was something that the Company would never allow. He had a real fear that either way a Company spook would be sent hunting her.

“Boy?” Johns broke into Riddick’s concentration. “What you doin up here?”

Riddick acted quickly. He turned and blocked the other man’s view of the console, as he reached in and removed the black box. “Just looking for some more light sources.”

“Ya find any?” Johns didn’t believe him for a moment, but couldn’t figure out why else he would be on the bridge.

“Nothing useful.”

“Well git, then. I’m sure there is something you can do for Carolyn.” The merc had come to the bridge for the privacy he needed for a spike or two. “She sure is something else isn’t she?” Now he had the convict’s attention, and he planned on using it to his advantage. “Likes her sex a bit on the rough side, not something you’d expect for a little thing like her.” He winked in a way that spoke of things that men talked about only between themselves. “But then again a woman would do almost anything to keep from getting her neck sliced with a shiv.” He grinned and rubbed the side of his jaw; he knew Fry had a bruise to match his. Johns’s eyes glowed as if to say, makes you wonder what she was doing with me in the storeroom, and how she really got that black and blue mark.

His stab in the dark had hit home. Well what do you know, she’s a real whore, not only lets him put his convict hands on her, but likes it rough. It had been an easy guess, a man like Riddick wouldn’t know anything but rough, in that the two men had the same tastes. The added pleasure of seeing Riddick’s face turned to stone, made Johns feel powerful for the first time since he lost the argument with Fry.

………………………..

Johns injected a second spike into his eye and leaned back against the wall of the bridge. He knew the others were waiting for him, but he didn’t care. If they were going on this foolish trip he needed all the courage he could get. He looked up and saw Fry at the top of the steps staring at him. His mind did a spin as he hoped it was eating Riddick up to know she was up here with him. He would do his best to drag it out.

“You give him the cells and a ship and he’ll leave all of you.” Johns watched her as he spoke quietly, trying to reason with her.

“I don’t get it Johns, what is so God-damned valuable in your life that you’re worried about losing, ‘sides your next spike?” Her disgust was written all over her face as she watched him slowly stand and move toward her, his shotgun raised.

“You’d be surprised, Carolyn.” He whispered as he pushed the double-barrels against her navel. It was giving him a hard on to watch the cold metal against her bare skin. This time there would be no fistfight.

“Get that thing away from me!” She glared at him.

“What you goin’ to do, kill me? You already threatened that once, and so far I’m still breathin’.” He shoved the gun tighter against her, forcing her to step back. “You know what I think? I think you’re nothin’ but a chicken shit whore. You think you bought your way to safety with that body of yours. It’s a damn fine body, Carolyn, but when Riddick is through with it, you’ll be just as dead and he’ll have the skiff.” He pulled his gun aside and grabbed his pack, as she stood motionless, the blood rushing out of her face. “Now I think the group is waiting for us.” Her nodded toward the stairs for her to lead the way, it took all his effort not to laugh as he followed her down and found Riddick watching them as they descended.

When they headed out into the night filled with monsters, it wasn’t as they had planned it. Johns had skillfully added a few extra ones to their load. In his drug hazed condition it increased his feeling of power to see the doubts he had placed. He only had to wait for the right moment and he would send Fry and Riddick crashing.

…………………………….

Riddick led the way and he was glad the others didn’t see what he did. It was going to take all his ingenuity to get them through the maze of aliens. Maybe it would keep his mind off the dead feeling inside of him. He called himself every kind of fool for listening to Johns’s words, but they had just enough of a ring of truth to make him doubt. The further away from the H-G they got, the more cracks formed in the fragile link he had forged with Carolyn. He had to stop thinking about her like that. She was Fry not Carolyn! If she had used him, she would pay.

Monsters in the Night (Part 6)

The group moved like an asthmatic neon spider across the desert, with Riddick ten paces in the lead. He wasn’t sure whether it was the low oxygen content in the air; his shined purple tinged view of the creatures, which waited for a wrong move on his part; or some combination of both, that added a surreal quality to all he was seeing and feeling. But whatever it was, it was intensified by the echo of Carolyn’s name in his head.

Trudging on with determination, he refused to listen to the words that clawed at him to be heard. For a small space of time she had made him feel things that he had thought were long dead. She had given him hope that he could become human again, and had breathed life into his soul. It was too easy to see the passion that existed between FRY and Johns. In public it showed itself as antagonism, but in private, what form did it take? The question ate at him, even as he did her bidding, and led the group back to the skiff.

Was this what she had wanted all along? Had this all been part of a plan? Was Johns right? Fuck! Had he let himself be used? It would explain why she hadn’t been afraid of him in the skiff. Why she had given herself to him so easily, and hadn’t even tried to fight when his lovemaking had turned crude. Had he been wrong; was she like all the woman in he had known? Had she been willing to trade her life for a fuck, even one that was degrading? If that were the case, she would find that it was a short-lived trade.

He took a deep breath and tried to fight off the feelings that argued with his twisted logic. Gritting his teeth he pushed aside the gentle times between them and called them manipulation. It was easier to imagine that the reason she had been so afraid for him, when she had watched Shazza die, had been because she had known all along that he was the only one who could get them back to the skiff in the dark. And the passion? Well women could always fake that. Cold rage whispered in his ear and fought to win back parts of him that had begun to change by wiping away the memories of things she couldn’t have faked.

It was more comfortable to fall back on the old familiar patterns, than the new ones Fry had brought out in him. It was like slipping on an old damaged coat; one that knew the contours of his soul and was a sure protection against anyone getting close enough to hurt him. She had let him believe in her, and given him a moment of hope; for that alone, she would pay dearly.

Carolyn’s eyes were trained on Riddick as he led them through the dark. She knew something was terribly wrong. What had happened to the man who had made love to her in the skiff, exciting her body even when he was trying to drive her away? The cold distant man, who was their eyes in the night, couldn’t possibly be the same one who had seen her fears at the pod, and had been gentle enough to offer a piece of his strength before the terror began again. She was a woman who stood alone. Who had never let herself depend on anyone, but over the last hours she had begun to depend on him. It surprised her the pain it was causing to realize that she had probably been used.

Was Johns right, was she just a puppet, and a convenient body, until they had enough power to launch the skiff. She hated to believe anything the spike junkie had said, though ever since they loaded the cells for the return trip, Richard had looked right through her. His odd shined eyes cold, and his face hard. Was she just another transport pilot to be killed, when it was time for him to make his get-away? If that were true, she knew that when he finally drove his shiv into her, it would be less painful than having him rip out her emotions as he was doing now. He had made her feel like a woman and she had acted like one, for the first time in a long time. Now she was paying for it with a woman’s feelings.

As she forced her thoughts back to the present, she realized she had begun to shiver. The sand beneath her feet still held some warmth, but since the suns went behind the planet, a chilly wind began to blow. The dropping temperatures would keep them going faster than the earlier heat had, and that was all that was important. Fuck the self-torturing doubts, they would get her nowhere. It was the future that was important, and there would be no future to worry about, if they didn’t keep going.

Paris gasped for breath as he moved along with the group. He had never been a brave man. All his life he had hidden in his antiquities, satisfied that he was safe as long as he kept himself surrounded by art and beauty. Even after they crashed, he had convinced himself that his only worry was too much sun and the inconvenience of a delay. That fiction had lasted until the Settler woman had been torn to bits in front of his eyes an hour ago.

As they wandered in the dark following the bouncing light a few feet in front of them, he was proud of the battle he was waging, to keep the fear that was licking at his soul from consuming him. He knew he was walking a thin line between madness and sanity. If his cowardice was let lose, he would very likely run screaming into the night, and the demons that had followed him all of his life would win. If that happened, what would have been the use of art and beauty in the first place.

Concentrating on the light from his welding torch, he murmured one of his favorite lines from Homer’s Iliad. ‘So they spoke, and tall Hektor of the shining helm shook the lots, looking backward, and at once Paris’ lot was outshaken.’ It always gave him false courage to imagine himself as the warrior Paris from that epic poem. But it didn’t work this time, because the torch suddenly gave a gasp of brightness then died. He tossed it aside in a show of bravado, and reached for the box of lights on the sled beside him. But his nerves were shot, and he fumbled the flashlight as his hand closed around it. The sound of its metal casing bouncing off into the dark made him freeze, as panic won out. Everything else seemed to happen in slow motion.

Jack moved to retrieve the fallen light. Fry screamed out Jack’s name; and Imam took a flying leap, to cover the teenager’s body with his own. As the first monster attacked from the sky, the sounds that filled the air were a combination of shouting voices, shotgun blasts, and the alien’s clicks and pops as it swooped and swirled over its prey.

It was too much for the terror filled antique dealer to take. He knew he had to get away from the source of his fear, but it was all around him. His actions made no sense, but at least he was doing something. With his eyes closed, he crawled as fast as he could away from the chaos. He didn’t hear the others shouting his name, calling him back. He didn’t realize he had shorted out the lighting structure they had created. Death was very near, but even that was better than the unending terror.

In his mind he had became the Paris in The Iliad. As he crouched a distance away from the group he took a swig from the bottle he was holding, as he waited for the daughter of Zeus to find him. He knew the lines, what was taking her so long? ‘But Aphrodite caught up Paris easily, since she was divine, and wrapped him in a thick mist and set him down again in his own perfumed bedchamber.’ The flame from his lighter exploded as he exhaled 45 proof breath. Then he knew the truth! There was no goddess, only monsters and death!

Riddick had stood and watched as Paris lost his battle and it killed him. The monsters tore the little man apart as savagely as they had Shazza. In that moment the convict knew he was NOT going to die running from those things. If it came to a showdown, he would face them with his shiv in hand and he would not die alone!

“Do I even want to know?” Carolyn moved close behind him, staring where Paris had been seen last. She needed Richard’s nearness, since she couldn’t have his touch, but she would be damned if she would admit it. In the background she heard Imam consoling Jack, and knew he could probably take better care of the boy than she could.

“It all depends on what you’re askin’ ‘bout.” He turned toward her for a moment, his face unreadable, then walked away, leaving her staring at his back.

Johns smirked as he watched Riddick ignore Fry; it made him want to laugh out loud. The expression on her face was almost as good as the look of fear that had crossed it earlier, when she had rushed to get to the kid, and had momentarily stood in front of his smoking shotgun. He had been taking out aliens, and had almost taken her out, as well. It had been a close call. He had had to force his finger away from the trigger, but in that moment of seeing her caught between the cross hairs, a better idea had formed. It would be payback for the both of them in one stroke, and if it worked, he would chain Riddick back up and collect the double reward for bringing him in alive!

The little interchange between the two also proved the big man had moved back into self-preservation mode. Without his help, it would be easy to topple Fry and take control of the group. All Johns had to do was wait for the right moment. Lights were being lit all around him so he reached for a torch to help.

That’s when they found it, the markings in the sand from the sled. They had been over this ground before and didn’t even know it.

“Are we lost?” Imam looked up with his light.”

“Listen…” Riddick called out.

“Do you even know where we are?” The Holyman shouted, his anger clear in his voice.

“LISTEN!” Riddick shouted again. This time they did, and could hear the voices of the creatures around them growing louder and louder. “The canyon ahead, I circled it once to buy some time to think.”

“I think we should go now.” Imam had seen the expressions of terror on Jack’s and Rashad’s faces. If they waited much longer the children would be frozen with fear.

“I don’t know about that.” He nodded his head toward the area in front of them. “That’s death row up there.” Then he waited a beat, knowing exactly the damage his next statement would do. “Especially with the girl bleeding.”

“What the fuck you talkin about, she’s not bleeding.” Johns looked at Carolyn as if he would know.

“Not her.” Riddick’s whisper carried menace with it. The spiker had better not know that for sure! “Her,” he turned his head toward Jack, then gave Fry a half smile.

“Fuck no!” Fry moved closer to the young girl with her light held high. Her eyes darted between the teen and Riddick. He had known Jack was a girl all along and hadn’t told her! Why? She thought she could trust him. What else had he been keeping from her and why had he chosen now to go public with his knowledge?

“I just thought it would be better if people took me for a guy.” Jack looked around at the shocked and panicked faces that were staring at her as if she had sprouted two heads. And to her horror she felt her eyes begin to tear up. “I thought they might leave me along. Someone is always messin with me.” She bent down and cried, for herself and for the people who had put their trust in her.

“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry.” Fry knelt and put her arm around the child wanting desperately to pull back her harsh words, as the implications of what the girl was saying hit home. If the situations were reversed she probably would have done the same thing, so how could she blame her? “Shhh, its okay.” Her anger boiled close to the surface. How could Riddick have used Jack as a pawn to further enflame the group? He couldn’t have chosen a worse time to expose the teenager.

“They been after her from the minute we left the ship. In case you haven’t noticed they’re drawn to blood.” Carolyn heard Riddick talking while she tried to comfort the girl. It infuriated her that he had kept this information from her, when she had been making decisions that affected all of them. It was too late to second-guess herself, but she wasn’t sure she would have made the same choices if she had known.

Carolyn surged to her feet, fighting self-doubt for the first time in her life. It had been one thing to attempt this dangerous venture when she had thought she had Richard’s support. Without it she felt empty and lost. Damn him for fucking with my mind!

“This is not going to work!” She whispered as she walked toward the men. Her eyes shooting angry bullets at the man who had shaken her world, then walked away as if nothing had happened. “We have to go back. I was wrong, I admit it.”

“You’re the one who pushed to get us out here in the first place.” Johns smelled weakness and was moving in for the kill. “I was just starting to enjoy all the fresh air and wide open spaces!”

“What are you, high again?” This was the last thing she needed, a power struggle out in the open, in the dark. “Just listen to yourself, Johns!”

Riddick stood back and watched. He had felt the anger Carolyn had turned toward him, but sloughed it off. After all it wasn’t his responsibility. But deep inside it hurt to watch Johns go after her with ammunition he had provided.

Imam sighed in disappointment at Riddick’s actions. Was the man learning nothing from this experience? Didn’t he see that the small blonde woman he had just thrown to the wolves had the power to lead him to salvation? He waited as long as he could for God to show the other man the way, but when it appeared that the convict was refusing to see the chance that stood before him, he stepped in. “She is the Captain, we should listen to her.”

“Listen to her? When she was so ready to sacrifice us all?” It gave the merc a heady feeling to be able to bring Fry down in public. “During the crash she tried to blow the whole passenger cabin. Tried to kill us all in our sleep.”

“Shut your mouth!” She lost control as he jeered at her. Her shameful deed was out in the open for all to see and it broke her heart that Richard just stood there and watched with a cool detached expression.

Johns’s eyes were cold as he drove the verbal shiv home. “We’re just fuckin disposable, we’re just walking ghosts to you.”

She looked around frantically, knowing that she had to make him be quiet. “Just shut you’re fucking blow hole,” she screamed as her eyes fell on a twisted piece of long dead bone. She reached for it and threw herself at the grinning man. The bone aimed for his head with all of her might, but at the last moment, she pulled back, unable to do what she wanted so badly to do. She didn’t know which was worse; the desperate need to smash his face in, or the sure knowledge that she didn’t have it in her to kill him.

Johns grabbed her wrists as the bone whizzed past his face. Her actions couldn’t have been more perfect if he had written a script for her. “Now, Carolyn, wouldn’t that be a bit more public than you like it?” He ground out, as he squeezed her hand so tightly that the bone fell from her grip. “I think you just lost this round!” His voice dripped with contempt as he threw her to the ground and knelt to grasp her by the front of the shirt.

“Let me go you shit!” Her nails dug into his hands.

“Is that the worst you can do?” He shook her once before he let her go, and stood tall over her. “I seem to remember you sayin you’d kill me if I ever laid my hands on you again. You’re really a pitiful site Carolyn, all threats and no guts.”

Riddick’s head came up like a shot. What was this? She has threatened to kill him if he touched her again? Was this more of the game she was playing, or had Johns been manipulating them both? He couldn’t take he eyes off of her, as she lay there broken, on the ground. He had been partly responsible for it, but it surprised him that he would give it another thought. And what was causing him to hurt so badly as he watched her cry?

Johns grabbed a flare and popped it against his knee to light it. God he felt good, bringing the bitch down had been almost as exhilarating as a spike. “The verdict’s in, the light moves forward.” He couldn’t have said it any clearer if he had shouted it, the power had just been passed.

Imam and Jack rushed to the woman who was trying to pull herself to her feet. “We’ve all been scared,” Imam muttered as the two of them pulled her up, and each kept an arm around her for support. “There was nothing you could have done to save us during the crash, but you have done much for us since we arrived here.” Now the Holyman understood the demons that had been barking at the woman’s heels since the ordeal began. She had truly been forced to look into the face of God and she felt that she had failed. She didn’t understand that He never asked more than a person could give and all was done as He had planned it. The ending had yet to be written. So we will see, we will see.

“But..” Fry looked into his comforting chocolate eyes and drew strength from his serenity.

“Shhhh, there will be time for talk later. We must first make it to the skiff.” Imam smiled reassuringly and Jack gave her another squeeze.

Riddick and Johns had moved ahead. The others could hear them deep in conversation but couldn’t make out what was being said. Watching them from a distance made Fry’s skin crawled. Had Richard changed sides? Had he been just watching to see who won the struggle, then would support the winner.

Johns held the light high in a gesture to make the convict think he was being considerate of his light sensitive eyes. “If we could make it through the canyon and lose just one it’d be quite a feat.”

“Not if I’m the one.” Riddick watched the other man out of the corner of his eye. What was he planning?

“What if you’re one of five?” The cool way Johns talked it sounded as if he was choosing a sacrificial goat.

“You got someone picked out?” Riddick fought to keep from looking back at the group. He hoped that Carolyn was smart enough to pull them back. Johns was out of control and it was going to get very ugly.

“Well the way I see it we’ve got a few choices. The Holyman’s a pain in the ass, but we need him to help pull the sled. The kid with him is almost useless, but he’s strong and we’ve still got a way to go before we’re at the ship. That only leaves the girl and Carolyn.” He had worked this all out. It was necessary that Riddick make the choice on his own, it would add a sense of irony to the situation.

“Won’t you need Fry to pilot?” Riddick was getting a bad feeling where this was leading.

“I’ve got you, what do I need her for?” He tried to look sincere. Yes the convict would get them off this rock, but once in the shipping lanes and on autopilot, he figured he could take over. Then it was back in cold sleep for you Mr. Richard B. Riddick. “The advantage of using the little girl would be that they already have her scent and Fry has other more pleasurable uses than piloting.” He grinned man-to-man.

“There is that.” The deep rumble to Riddick’s voice should have been a warning to the other man, but it wasn’t.

“But she’s an argumentative bitch that always wants her own way. Besides she isn’t that good a fuck. And I don’t want to get into it with Imam if we use the child. So all you got to do is take Fry out. That’s not too big a job for ya, is it?” He smirked. Once he had Riddick back in custody, he would take great pleasure in telling him that Carolyn’s death had been planned all along. It had been obvious that the convict had cared about her. What fun to tell him that he was the main reason she had been chosen!

“I don’t know, as you said, she has other uses, and good or not, a fuck’s a fuck.” Riddick pushed, he was going to find out the truth here and now.

“Come on man, she’s not that good, besides you gotta dodge those flying fists first.” Johns could feel the need of a spike creeping along his nervous system. He didn’t want to argue this any longer, take the bitch out and be done with it. “Frankly I like a woman who fights back, but she’s nothin now. Broke her damn spirit. I could go back there and she’d give me head in front of the whole group just to be allowed to live. What’s the fun in that?” Too bad he wouldn’t get to do just what he was saying. But if he wanted Riddick to be cut with the same double-edged sword, it would have to be done differently.

“She did like to fight,” Riddick grinned in pleasure as he remembered the gentle lovemaking that was nothing like what Johns was describing. The fucker had to be lying!

“She sure did!” Johns rubbed his sore jaw. “She took a good swing at me before I subdued her. Ya got to admire a woman who can take it like that. Most of them crumple at the first sign of pain, but not her!” In his imagination he was letting his temper lose to get both sexual pleasure and revenge on the woman who had ignored him.

“Ya think she’s like that?” Riddick fingered his shiv as he decided where he would make the fist cut. The man was dead and didn’t know it.

“Oh yeah!” His feelings of power increased as he pictured the bitch tied spread-eagle for his personal use. If it had worked out that way it would have taken her a long time to die. In his drug deprived mind he wondered for a moment if there wasn’t a way that he could to that with Riddick chained as a witness. It would drive the man insane!

“Ya know what I think?” Riddick whispered and drew his shiv. “You’re a lying fuck and we need a much larger bait to keep those monsters distracted.”

From the distance Fry could see the light from shotgun blasts and hear the noises of a fight mixed in with the singing of the monsters. It made her blood turn cold and would have frozen her in place if she hadn’t seen the frighten looks on the faces of the others. “Back, we gotta move back.” She cried out even as her eyes were glued to the confrontation it was too dark for her to see. “Leave the sled, lets get outta here!”

The men tumbled and fought. Each knew that only one of them would walk away. Riddick gasped as his arm was dislocated, but he pulled free and wrenched his joints back into place. His shined eyes glowed in the night and he circled Johns, jockeying for the better position.

“You’re going to die,” Johns cried out as his shotgun was pulled from his hands and he pulled his knife.

“Only one rule,” Riddick panted. “We stay in the light.” He could see the creatures around them that Johns couldn’t. Whoever went down and couldn’t get back up was going to be dinner. He had no plans on it being him. For some reason he wasn’t getting the pleasure out of the idea of killing the bounty hunter that he had imagined he would. Though his shiv strokes were as sure as ever, something was missing. As he closed in for what would usually be the kill, he realized that he couldn’t face Carolyn with blood from a fresh kill on his hands. He didn’t know why, but it had something to do with her fight with the man, some new information. It confused him enough that Johns almost got a knife stroke past him. Shit, I’ll figure it out later or this bastard is going to kill me!

The clang of the knife against his shiv told him that he had successfully parried the incoming blade. He shifted tactics and circled until he was able to catch Johns by the back of the neck and pull him close. “You lying sack of shit! I hope they kill you real slow!” Then his shiv sliced along the other man’s side. Blood gushed as Riddick stepped back, giving the remaining flare a swift kick. It sent creatures scurrying as it bounced off into the distance, leaving Johns along in a circle of darkness as the hungry monsters closed in for the kill.

They were so attracted by the scent of bleeding that they didn’t notice Riddick slip past them, or stand and watch as they circled the panicked man. The two large males that had been fighting for the alpha spot in this flock, since the eclipse had begun, sliced at the injured human. Their claws met as they ripped off an arm, and the sounds of the man’s screaming filled the air. The battle began in earnest over the largest piece of meat they had found so far. As they pecked and tore at Johns, the two males took time out to lunge at each other. He had become the battleground to prove supremacy of the flock.

Each time Johns tried to crawl away, one of them would drive him back, until he finally gave in to shock and loss of blood. Sitting in a stupor unable to comprehend what was happening to him, the junkie waited for the end wishing he had one last spike to make it all disappear. When one of the males finally defeated the other, he celebrated his victory by giving a huge roar and filling his mouth with the head of the prize that was bleeding at his feet.

The sound of a bloodcurdling scream filled the air and made Fry stumble. She righted herself and listened. Shadows from the whiskey bottle lantern she was carrying, danced across her face as she prayed it wasn’t Richard that had cried out like that. Shivering as Imam and Jack looked to her for guidance, she turned to keep on running.

Riddick stepped out of nowhere and she ran straight into his bulk. For a moment she let her fingers dig into his sides as she was assailed with his familiar scent and the secure feel of his body under her hands. Then she remembered he was no longer the man thought him to be and pulled away.

Carolyn’s touch brought back all the feelings he had thought he had managed to free himself of. He wanted to stand there and let her small hands wander all over him, but her sudden withdrawal reminding him of the truths he had learned tonight. Johns may have lied about her being his lover, but it was so much easier to live in a world without trust. As he stepped back he realized that he felt safer keeping her at a distance.

“Run back to the ship huh?” He was calling her a coward and he knew it. An angry Carolyn was much easier to deal with than a caring one. “Just huddle together until the lights go out?”

“Stay away from us.” She yelled at him hating the things he was implying.

“Until you can’t see what’s eating you is that the big plan?” He had made them mad, he only hoped it was mad enough to save their own lives.

“What about Johns,” Imam held up his torch trying to look into the distance.

“He died a better death than he deserved.” Riddick turned away, but was stopped when Carolyn ran her hand down his arm to his hand and pulled it close to her. He could see a worry burning in her eyes and he wanted to push it away, but couldn’t, even if he knew how.

“You didn’t..?” She hated the thought that he might have killed because of what the man had done to her. There had been too much hatred and death in his life. She didn’t want to cause him any more grief.

“Naw, but he might have been better off if I had.” He brushed his other hand lightly against her cheek as her eyes closed with relief. The emotion that washed across her face was completely foreign to him. If he didn’t know better he would think she was relieved that he hadn’t taken the man’s life. Dead was dead, no matter what the cause, why should it matter to her. Then he remembered his own doubts about killing Johns. Ahh Carolyn you’ve got my head spinnin, he sighed. He got them all moving forward before he could give it anymore thought.

When they got to the mouth of the canyon, Riddick called a halt to check things out. He examined the body of a dead alien and to his delight found a blind spot. “Fuckers got a weakness.” He grinned then looked up at Carolyn. “Always know your enemy.” Was he talking about her, or the creature, a little voice whispered in his head?

Imam approached the man who had become their leader. He had much to say and little time to do it. “Should we pray together? I’ve already prayed with the others. It is painless you know.”

“Pointless!” Riddick spit out as he kept a watch on the canyon entrance.

“Just because you don’t believe in God, doesn’t mean he doesn’t believe in you.” There was much work for him to do if he was to make the man understand. It was the only way both he and the woman would be able to find peace. One was the key to the other.

“You think someone can spend their life the way I have and not believe? Got it all wrong Holyman. I absolutely believe in God and I absolutely hate Him!” The anger and loss were clear in the convict’s voice.

“He is with us none the less.” So that was the problem, the man was in despair. Salvation was within his grasp, if he would only look up and take it.

“Two of your boys are already dead. How much faith do you have left, Father?” What he had meant as an insult came out as a question.

“As much as it takes to get the job done.” Imam looked the man in the eyes willing him to listen to him. “I asked you once before, what do you think a Holyman is before he looked into the face of God. You never gave me an answer.”

“I never gave it much thought.” Riddick shrugged the question off as he did the last time.

“It is time you did, because God is staring you in the face and you are refusing to look back!”

“You think I’m goin’ to be a Holyman?” He laughed at the notion. It was the most absurd thing he had ever listened to.

“No, Mr. Riddick.” Imam laughed as he pictured the rough looking man in turban and robes. “I doubt that is what God has in mind for you. I’m just saying that not all of us are what we seem. I know a man who was a murderer. But he wasn’t brave enough to kill as you did. He did his killing from behind the locked doors of an office. He gave the orders for others to die and never gave it a second thought. He sent men such as yourself out to do his dark deeds. He was a truly evil man, until one day he was forced to see God. Surely if a man such as he could learn to believe, then so could you.”

“What if I don’t want to!” Riddick was tired of the questions and the odd feeling that there was something very important about what Imam was saying to him.

“It would be truly unfortunate, because you hold the key to another’s peace of mind.”

“Enough!” Riddick couldn’t fight his inner voices and Imam’s too. “We can sit here discussing religion until those fuckers come for us, or we can get moving. I for one, choose to move on!” He stood tall over the Holyman, refusing to hear more. “Only see one way, that way.” He pointed toward the narrow opening to the canyon of bones that they had driven through that afternoon. They all knew it was only slightly wider than the Sandcat had been. There was almost no margin for error.

“What about the cells?” Imam patted Rashad to give him reassurance and smiled at Jack.

“I’ll take them.” Riddick looked Carolyn full in the face. He wanted to promise her that the cells were for all of them, but he wasn’t a lier, and he knew that the truth still hung in the balance. So he reached out and gave her hand a squeeze hoping she realized that he would do his best.

“Are you sure you can keep up?” She whispered as she clung to the hand that still held hers.

Damn those blue eyes that worried FOR him. It twisted his soul and made him want to do things to her body that would knock that trusting look off her face. Instead he shook his hand free of hers and pulled his goggles over his eyes. “MOVE!” He shouted. “Just keep the girl between you!” His body ached for Carolyn, but he had to get her away from him. Put some distance between them, before he rolled her beneath him, and proved once and for all what an animal he was.

The ropes around the cells dug into his hands as he pulled them along. If he concentrated on the pain they were causing, maybe he could keep his mind off the woman in front of him. This can’t be, he shouted to himself. She can’t do this to me. I refuse to feel anything, again! The hurt had been too great when he had believed Johns. It had almost cost all their lives. He couldn’t let it happen again.

They ran the maze of bones in the canyon, making good time, until suddenly a huge flock of the monsters came swooping around the next bend. The group scattered as far as the steep walls would allow, but there was almost no place to hide from the screaming diving things above them.

“Do not look up!” Riddick shouted as he kept running.

“They’re killing each other.” Fry gasped as it began to rain blue glop. To her horror, she watched as a swarm of them clustered around Richard, but to her relief, he refused to give into them and kept moving.

“Wait,” Jack called out as she saw the man pull ahead of the group. He had out run the monsters, now he was out running them.

Riddick refused to listen to the voices behind him. He would be home free if he could make it a bit further. What did he need them for? But something in him hurt as if he was bleeding. He couldn’t stop himself from looking back over his shoulder and what he saw made his blood run cold.

Jack had fallen and was huddling under a small arch of bone as Carolyn tried to fight off two monsters with only a whiskey bottle lantern. In that moment he knew he could never stand to watch her die. Pulling his shiv he turned and attacked!

Moments later the warm innards of the monster were laying at his feet. “It did not know who it was fuckin with!”

As Carolyn pulled Jack up, they were attacked from behind, and Rashad was pulled into the darkness, never to be seen again. In that second Imam felt his faith waver, but he looked toward Riddick who was grabbing the cells and moving forward. “I believe, I truly believe,” the Holyman whispered as they moved on.

They hadn’t gone twenty paces when the first raindrops began to fall. At first Carolyn thought it was more of the blue glop, but they weren’t that lucky. She heard a laugh that sent a chill up her spine and realized it was Richard.

“So where the hell’s your God now?” He looked at Imam as they huddled by the canyon wall trying to keep the lights burning.

“All around us, my friend. It is our choice if we see Him or not.” He whispered.

They didn’t see the tentacle that was slowly moving above Jack. Didn’t know that they were in danger until they heard her scream as its knife-edge sliced her shoulder and arm as it tried to pull her up. But Riddick saw and he acted.

In one breath his shiv was in his hand and he lunged, cutting the slimy extension that would have taken the teen to her death. “Take care of her.” He shouted to Imam as he climbed the rocks to try and get a better idea of how far they had to go.

The teenager was almost paralyzed with fear. She could smell her own blood and feel it wet on her hand and arm where she had been cut.

“It’s alright Child, I’ll take care of you.” Imam pulled off his turban and unwound it to bandage the girl.

“Richard, are we close? Just tell me that the settlement is right there.” The panic in Carolyn’s voice made him lose hope. He had let her down. He had let them all down.

“We can’t make it.” He whispered as he turned to her. There was no ‘we’. That had been the problem all alone. For the first time in his life he had been thinking in terms of ‘we.’ Deep inside Riddick had known that he could never be anything but alone. Now all that was left was to prove it to the woman beside him.

His eyes raked the side of the canyon. He didn’t know what he was looking for, but when he found it, he would know. There it was, a space darker than all the rest.

“Here, in here.” He pulled aside a rock and motioned for the others to get in out of the rain and hide. “We go in here.” He could see Carolyn shivering as she pushed Imam, who was carrying Jack into the small space.

She stood in front of him, her hair plastered to her face and her teeth chattering. For one last time he leaned down and kissed her, before he shoved her toward the other two and rolled the rock back in place.

The pain that hit him was so intense that he doubled over, fighting to catch his breath. There, he had pushed her out of his life. Now he wouldn’t have to see her die. Why did it hurt so much? He fought his way to the cells and grabbed the ropes and began to run. Maybe if he ran fast enough he could keep ahead of the feel of her lips on his and the trusting look on her face, that was wiped away to be replaced with horror when she realized that he was leaving them behind.

Monsters in the Night (Part 7)

As the stone rolled in front of Carolyn’s face, it took her breath away. She leaned her forehead against the cold rock and shivered as her eyes fill with tears. He’d done it again, damn him! He’d played her for a fool, and she had let him lead them like lambs to the slaughter.

“God works in mysterious ways.” Imam’s deep quiet voice filled the small cave as he gently placed a hand on Fry’s shoulder trying to reassure her. The only other sound that could be heard was the distant calling of the monsters, and Jack’s quick frantic breathing.

“Why’d he leave all of us?” The teen questioned as she leaned against the rock, her arm throbbing with pain, the blood staining the bandage that Imam had wrapped around her wound. “He should ‘a just left me, not you guys!”

“No!” Fry turned, as anger replaced despair. Riddick had been twisting her emotions since they crashed, and she was drained, from feeling so much, in such a short time. Why hadn’t she seen it coming? ‘Because you didn’t want to.’ A little voice whispered back. “He shouldn’t have left any of us!”

They worked quickly to pour all the whiskey into one bottle, in hopes that it would be enough to keep the light burning, but for what? Fry didn’t want to think that far ahead. No matter what they did it wasn’t enough, the liquor had been diluted too much by the rain. All they could do was sit by helplessly watching as the light burned to nothing, and they were left surrounded by darkness and the cries of the monsters trying to get into their cave.

………………..

Riddick grinned as the rain pounded on his face. The mud that was quickly forming made him slip and slide, as he dragged the heavy power cells out of the canyon and up the last hill above the settlement, but he didn’t care. For the first time since crashing on this rock, he felt like himself again. “I’m the biggest baddest mother-fucker around,” he chanted to keep his feet moving, and his mind off all that he had left behind.

…………………

“Carolyn,” the quiet whisper made her jump. Only one person called her that, and he’d run away. It took her a moment to realize it was Imam trying to get her attention. “Look up there.” He grinned in the dark.

“My God, I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything so beautiful.” The ceiling and upper walls of their cave were covered with inch long worms that gave off an eerie green light.

“God, is right my dear,” he smiled as he helped Carolyn pull the little animals off the walls and stuff them in one of the empty bottles.

“Are there enough?” Jack watched them as they worked quickly. The loss of blood and the cold were making her shiver, but she didn’t want to appear weak so she wrapped her arms around herself to stay in control.

“That’s all there are,” Fry shook her head, the doubt evident on her face. There had only been enough glowworms to fill one bottle, and even as they watched one or two of the small lights grew darker and went out. “I don’t know if it’ll work, but it’s all we got. And from the looks of things we gotta hurry, or we won’t even have this.”

“It appears that once removed from their natural habitat, those creatures die.” Imam shook his head at the further loss of any living thing.

“You two go,” Jack whispered. “I’d just slow ya down, and with the way I’m bleeding those monsters’ll be on me as soon as I’m out that door.” She nodded toward the rock blocking the entrance and tried to look brave.

“No,” Fry was adamant. “We go together, or not at all!”

“Carolyn, Jack is right, we can’t all three make it without more light. I’ll stay with her, but you must go quickly, or there is no sense in any of us going.” He handed the bottle to Fry, his unsaid words left hanging between them. The fading light wasn’t their only worry. If Riddick weren’t stopped, he would take the skiff and leave them with no escape.

“All right,” Fry grabbed the bottle. “But I will be back!”

Imam saw the determination written on the young woman’s face, but he also saw the fear and doubt that she was fighting to keep hidden. “There is an old Earth saying, ‘God helps those who help themselves.’”

“Yeah, right, either that or He damns them!” She shot back. The Holyman’s words were a painful reminder of her past deeds. How could these people trust her with their lives when she had tried to kill them once all ready?

“You be the one to help us all, and God will be there when you need Him, my dear.”

Carolyn shook her head as she bolted from the cave. The rain pelted her as she ran, making her shiver from cold as well as fear. For the moment anger fueled her, and she was able to push aside everything but her goal. Once she reached it, she wasn’t sure she wouldn’t collapse from exhaustion. Biting her lip, she ignored her doubts and kept moving.

………………………

Riddick was meters away from the skiff and freedom when the memories started. A gentle man who spoke of salvation and peace in both English and Arabic; a dark-eyed young girl that looked at him with admiration and trust; but most of all a petite woman who called him Richard.

“No!” He yelled and squeezed his eyes tightly shut. “I am Riddick! You hear me? I’m Riddick. Richard is dead, and has been for a long time!”

He picked up the pace and ignored the feelings of regret that tried to break through his badass demeanor. He was a cold-blooded killer and that could never be changed. For a short period of time he had tried to be someone else, but it hadn’t worked. He was what he was. Now all he had to do was prove it to those who thought otherwise. After all what were a few lives more?

Working quickly he punched in the code that he had seen Fry use to open the rear doors of the little vessel. As he stepped in, he was met by the scent of Carolyn. It was a fragrance that was distinctly hers, and it made his head spin and his blood pound. He knelt and touched the floor between the two benches. Had it been here? Was this the exact spot where she had quivered when he filled he? Listening carefully he thought he could hear her soft moans mixed with screams of pleasure. He gasped in surprise when the memory made him grow hard.

“NO!” Riddick surged to his feet. “She’s just a woman, like any other.” He gritted his teeth as he tried to forget what he had felt when her passions sprang to life at his touch. ‘It was a trick! No woman responded like that,’ it was more comfortable to believe Johns’s accusations than to listen to his own judgment. He moved quickly to the pilot’s seat and flipped on the lights, all the while telling himself it was to keep the aliens out, not to drive away any remnants of the past that might be lingering.

“She will not fuck with my mind,” he muttered as he worked with determination loading and locking down the power cells. If his hands shook, it was from exhaustion and hard work. A man like him didn’t feel remorse. A man like him didn’t feel anything at all, at least not if he knew what was good for him!

……………………..

“Jack you’re freezing let me help you.” Imam moved closer to the shivering girl.

“Naw, I’m okay.” She stiffened and pulled away.

“Not all adults are to be feared.” His voice was gentle, but his stomach tied in knots when he thought what the girl must have been through. “But you are correct to be wary of strangers.”

“I’m sorry, Imam,” she leaned against him and let herself be pulled into his fatherly embrace. “It’s just that…” tears overwhelmed her at his kindness, even in the face of her lack of trust.

“It’s all right, Child.” He patted her back. “I understand. I won’t let anyone hurt you, ever again.” God had seen fit to take the three boys who had been going to New Mecca for their Hajj. It fit Imam’s sense of symmetry that he should be given another, needier, child to care for.

“I’m not going back, ya know.” Jack’s soft voice was muffled against his robes. “You shouldn’t’ve stayed with me, now you’ll die too. I’d rather those aliens get me than be taken back into the system again.” A bitter laugh escaped her throat as she looked up at the gentle man who had protected her on more than one occasion during the long night. “I guess maybe I understand Riddick better than I thought.”

“And what is it you understand about Mr. Riddick?”

“That anything is better than being under their control.” Her words were spoken as if she was old and tired instead of young. “He shouldn’t have left us, especially not Carolyn, but I can understand why he did it. Even when someone cares as much about you as she does about him, staying free is all that matters. I might have done the same thing, so I am just as bad.” In a way she had. She’d pretended to be a boy when she wasn’t, and because of what was going on in her female body, she had been a danger to the group. In the past she wouldn’t have given a damn about the adults, but since waking from cold sleep she’d met people who had changed her perspective.

“None of us knows what we are going to do, until faced with the choices.” Imam had his own demons from the past. He had thought he had dealt with them and God had forgiven him, now he was beginning to wonder.

“No, you always know what you’re going to do, and it’s always the right thing.” She looked at him with complete trust. “If those things get me, you need to tell Carolyn that it’s better than what I’d face if I go back to the world. That way she won’t feel guilt about it. She was hurt bad enough because of the trick I pulled on you guys.”

“Don’t talk like that, Child, we are all going to make it, you’ll see.” He added a silent prayer that it would be true. “And you did what you needed to do to survive, no one blamed you for it, least of all Carolyn.”

Jack shook her head as tears filled her eyes. “I really was an indentured foster child, like I said back there. Looking back I know it was nothing more than slavery, but I didn’t know how bad it was, until I was here with you guys. I guess that’s one advantage of never knowing what normal is. You don’t miss it because you never had it. This planet has been scary as hell, but I wouldn’t trade it for anything, because now I know what life can really be like. I learned that from you, Shazza, Carolyn, and even Riddick.”

“You like Mr. Riddick, don’t you?” The Holyman smiled at the young girl. She still possessed innocence, despite the terrible life she had been forced to live.

“Yeah, I think I do,” she grinned back. “He’s like me, he didn’t know what normal was until he met Carolyn. But he’s old, so I don’t think he understands. He doesn’t believe she really cares for him.”

“You think there is something between Captain Fry and Mr. Riddick?” Imam had detected the attraction between the two from the beginning, but he was a man who had known love and passion, though it was a long time ago. He wondered what the girl had seen or heard.

“Oh yeah,” she chuckled. “They care. You can feel the spark whenever they’re within ten feet of each other. At first, I kept expectin’ him to do somethin’ real nasty with her, but he didn’t.” She shuddered remembering the things a man could do to a woman; then her voice grew gentle as she tried to express an idea that was totally foreign to her. “But if he ever does, it won’t be nasty, because it’s with her.”

It brought tears to Imam’s eyes, that a girl so young would know so much about the seamy side of life. He wanted to do something that would take away all the bad she had experienced, but at the moment, listening to her talk would have to be enough. He promised himself that if they got off that planet alive, he would do everything in his power to see she never knew anything but kindness.

“Riddick likes to boast about how bad he is,” Jack smiled, not realizing the distress the Holyman was feeling for her. “I think he does that because he’s worried that someone’ll care about him. He uses the badass routine to push people away because he thinks he’ll disappoint ‘em; or worse, he’ll start to care about ‘em, and they’ll pull away.” She didn’t realize until the words were out that she had just told Imam a great deal about herself. In the dark she couldn’t see his wise brown eyes, or the gentle nodding of his head.

“I was allowed to tag after him, ‘cause I’m a kid,” she continued. “But an adult is different, especially Carolyn. She’s special and he knows it. She doesn’t scare and she doesn’t take any of his bullshit. They’re alike, those two. Both of ‘em have made mistakes, bad ones, but when they’re together none of that matters, because being together makes everything right. The sad thing is, it scared the hell out of him, so here we sit, because he had to prove he’s no good, to a woman who understood the badness and cared anyway.”

“Unconditional love,” the Holyman muttered. “It’s a lucky person who gets it, and a rare one who gives it.” He grew strangely silent, as he felt a sadness that he’d kept locked away for a long time. He’d been one of those very lucky ones, but like Mr. Riddick, he’d been too foolish to take the prize that was being offered. Now he had the rest of his life to wonder, ‘what if?’ Shaking his head he forced a smile on his face and quickly changed the subject. “You’re quite a philosopher, young lady.”

“Naw, I’m not, and I’m not a lady!” she shook her head in denial. “When you’re on the run, you learn to watch people real carefully, and since we crashed, there hasn’t been much else for me to do but watch.” She leaned her head against the man’s shoulder and gazed around their tiny cave.

“Imam, look!” She pointed to the ceiling and the small greenish lights that were crawling out of the cracks of the rocks.

“Allah be praised!” He reached for the remaining whiskey bottle and began tearing at the label. “They’re more of the glowworms, they must live deep in the rock.” He watched as their numbers slowly increased. “Soon there will be enough, and we can make another light!”

………………………..

Carolyn stumbled up the hill that overlooked the settlement. In the distance she could see the shuttle. Her lungs hurt from lack of oxygen and her legs shook. She had pushed her strength to the limit in fear that she would be too late. Holding the glow bottle high over her head, she made a dash for safety as the rain poured down around her.

……………………….

‘Come on what’re you waiting for?” Riddick stood in the protection of the skiff, looking back out over the settlement. He was dry and warm and escape was only a second away. Moving with precision, he closed and locked the crash doors. Then slipped into the pilots seat, and began the pre-flight check. As the computer hummed, he looked up, out over the lighted strip in front of him, and his stomach did a quick roll when he recognized a wet, angry Carolyn Fry standing three shuttle lengths away. A whiskey bottle held high over her head.

Carolyn felt her heart pound as she looked at Richard. For a moment she couldn’t move. She just stood there in the bright lights and wait. The decision was his. Would he let her in? Something quaked inside of her at the thought. Why should now be any different, no matter what she had done he hadn’t let her in yet. Life for him was easier with her at arms length, well not always quite that far away. She quickly sprinted to the back of the skiff when she saw him turn and open the crash doors.

“Strong survival instinct, I admire that in a woman.” He stood in the warm dry skiff and watched her three feet below him. The rain pounded on her already soaked hair and clothes. She was pale from fear and exertion, but he refused to feel anything. Emotions led to all he had been running from the last hour, and he knew that if he let her pull him back, he wouldn’t escape. To keep himself from moving toward her, he gripped the door on either side of him and pushed as hard as he could. It kept his body locked in place.

Taking in big gulps of air to relieve the pain in her lungs, she looked up at the man who had come to mean too much to her in the last 48 hours. “I promised them we would go back with more lights.”

“Did you, hmmm?” He stood strong and immovable to her plea.

“What are you afraid of?” She shouted in exasperation. She was fast coming to realize that if she had to do this alone, they would die.

“Me? Afraid?” He laughed to hide the fears she made him feel. She was his one vulnerable spot, but he couldn’t let her know it.

“Come on Riddick, there’s got to be some part of you that wants to rejoin the human race.” She pushed wet hair out of her eyes, as she looked up at him, trying to find the very human side he had shown her the last time they were in the skiff.

He congratulated himself on not wincing when she called him Riddick, and put more steel into his voice as he watched her begin to crumble. “Truthfully I wouldn’t know how!”

“Well then, just give me more light and I’ll go back for them myself!”

“Okay,” he crouched down and tossed her a light belt. “There you go.” He couldn’t take his eyes off of her. There had to be a way he could have her and still remain in control. He dismissed one idea after another as he crouched in the skiff watching her slowly play with the belt.

“Please, just come with me?” Her voice had the same husky, needing quality as when she had begged him to hurry their lovemaking, but this time her face wasn’t contorted in desire, but pain and fear.

“I got a better idea,” he smiled as he looked at her. The answer had come to him: she could stay with him, if he brought her down to his level. It was the only way, since he didn’t believe he could rise to hers. “You come with me.”

Emotions flew across her face as she gasped for breath. Oh God no, please no. She shivered as the possibilities open up to her. For a moment all she could see was being with him. One step and she would be safe and warm, with him. But..but.. “You’re fucking with me, I know you are,” she accused, to give herself time to think.

“You know I am.” He stood tall over her, angry that she would expect so much from him. “You think because you fucked me, you know me. Well, you don’t! I will leave you behind!”

Shocked that she would be right back where she had been when she was dumped out of cold sleep, she leaned into her hands and cried. How many more times was she going to have to live this horror, and in how many different forms? Forced to make a decision between probable death, in a fruitless attempt to save others; or live knowing that she had never even tried. ‘Maybe she hadn’t survived the crash, and this was her own personal version of hell!’

“Step inside.” He had to do this quickly; it had caught him by surprise that it would be so painful to bring her down. When she hadn’t been able to kill Johns he had realized her attempt to flush the passengers had been a fluke, probably caused by panic, mixed with Cold Sleep Disorientation. But by that time it was too late, he had let himself become involved with her, thinking she was a kindred spirit. In reality she had just become lost for a little while. Now if he wanted to keep her he had to destroy her.

Carolyn fought the temptation to walk straight ahead into the warmth of the skiff, knowing the outcome if she did. Emotions beat at her as she crouched down in the mud and the rain, crying openly, not caring if Riddick saw or not. If she held tightly to the ground, she would be able to fight the need to go to him, to be in his arms where it was safe. “I can’t, I can’t,” she whispered as she won her battle for the moment.

“Sure you can. Here I’ll make it easy on ya,” he leaned and reached out his right hand for her. He was sorely tempted to pick her up and carry her into the skiff, but if he did that, the decision would have been taken from her, and her fall wouldn’t be complete. He carefully stayed in the dry well lighted shuttle, and kept his face blank so she wouldn’t see that he was in as much pain as she was.

Oh God, oh God help me, she cried to herself. She gasped for breath as she knelt and buried her face against her thighs. She had ended up just as she feared she would, the last time Richard asked her to make a choice. She had stepped off into oblivion and enjoyed the trip down, but here she was, left to crash and burn while shivering in the rain, and he watched calmly from the sidelines.

“Take my hand,” he didn’t know how much longer he could stand hurting her the way he was. “Come on. Look, no one is going to blame you. Save yourself, Carolyn.”

“No,” she whimpered, as she shook her head. “I…” ‘I’ll blame me!’ Screamed through her head.

“Come on,” he was on the edge. Either he brought her down now, or he left her, he couldn’t take the pain any longer! In long strides he moved down the entryway to stand beside her. Something crawled in the pit of his stomach, but he refused to acknowledge it. If he questioned his actions now, he would be lost. There was no way he could live in her world, so she needed to live in his gutter.

He bent and his hands circled her waist. Her wet clothes hid nothing from his touch. It took all his effort not to pull her tight against him. But he knew she still had to walk up that entry plank on her own. It was part of the deal as he saw it. He let himself help her to her feet, but that was all the help she could get from him until, she had made her choice. He remembered an old story from long ago, and the name Judas rang loud in his mind, but he closed it out as he watched her bent shape take a tentative step toward the skiff.

“That’s it,” he whispered, and wondered why he didn’t feel triumph.

Carolyn walked on shaking legs, one slow step at a time, up the gangway. She could feel a part of her tearing loose inside, and the empty space was filled with a coldness that had nothing to do with rain or lack of sun. She could feel Riddick keeping his distance behind her, and in that moment she began to hate him.

The loud cry of monsters in the night brought her to a complete stop. She had heard that before dying your life flashed before your eyes, maybe it’s true for a death of the soul as well. In that instant the last 48 hours sped through her brain. She saw all the people she almost killed and the ones that she had killed; her actions on the H-G and everything she had done on the planet to try and atone for them. In the end it all came down to five people: Jack, Imam, Riddick, Richard and herself.

She was being torn apart because she loved Richard, but not Riddick. With the aliens screaming in the distance she made her choice, now he had to make his, and by God she was going to help him!

“NOOOOO!” She screamed as she turned with a roar and jumped two feet back down the entryway, landing on the man who had turned to look out into the night. The impact of her body on his right shoulder sent him skidding in the mud, where he landed on his back in a huge puddle.

“You! You listen to me!” She let her weight carry her on top of him, and straddled his body with her hands wrapped around his neck and thumbs pushed against his windpipe. The rain poured all around them, water running into their faces, and plastering their hair and clothes to their already wet bodies.

He lay mesmerized by the anger and passion that exploded from her. The broken woman of moments ago had disappeared to be replaced by one that roused his desires and awoke something in him he had thought long dead.

“I AM THE CAPTAIN OF THIS SHIP. I AM NOT LEAVING ANYONE ON THIS ROCK WITH THOSE FUCKIN’ THINGS, EVEN IF…” In temper she raised her right arm to hit him to emphasize her words.

Riddick had been a street fighter too long to miss an opening like the one she was giving him. He flipped her over backward, onto her bottom, and slid her around in the mud until she was facing him, then dragged her under him, with her legs spread. Her bottom sat snugly on his right foot that caught her left ankle tight between her groin and his leg. His right hand held her wrists securely to the left of her head, while he his left dug his shiv menacingly below her jaw on the left side of her neck.

It had been a close call what he would have done with her once he got her beneath him. His lips itched to kiss her and his hands to touch her, but now wasn’t the time. For the moment, holding her at shiv point seemed the safest thing to do.

Rain fell in her eyes as she blinked. One second she had been in control, the next he had her flat on her back in the mud, his body leaning threateningly over hers. Her mind kept shouting that they’d been here before, but she knew this was different. Despite the passion that was singeing the air, she was sure it was his blade that was going to be driven into her, this time.

“Get that thing off my neck,” she ground out. She was sick to death of his choices; it was his turn to choose.

“Shut-up!” He blinked rain out if his eyes, as he fought for control. He wanted her, God he wanted her, but in the amount of time it had taken to knock him on his ass, she had moved forever out of his reach. “You’d die for them?” He had to be sure, too much hung in the balance.

“I’d try for them!” She threw out a dare of her own.

“You didn’t answer me!” He saw what she was doing. He had been doing the same thing to her moments ago. She just didn’t realize that he was past the point of crawling out of the gutter.

“Yes I would,” she whispered. “I would die for them, Richard,” her soft voice carried conviction. She knew he might kill her no matter what she said, but she wasn’t afraid. He had told her once that there were worse things than dying, and the last 48 hours had proved it to her. She just might have a chance to win her soul back. Would he be willing to try for his? “I would die for them!” The challenge was clear in her voice.

“I believe you would, Carolyn.” As he flipped his shiv away from her slim neck, he realized she was shivering beneath him. Sliding his goggles to his forehead he saw that her mouth was tinged with blue and her skin covered with goose bumps. Never taking his eyes from hers he let her wrist slip free and pulled her up until she straddled his lap.

“Richard,” she whispered. “Thank God, it’s you.” Tears of exhaustion and relief poured down her face, as she burrowed against him. With his arms tight around her it was like coming home. “You feel so warm and safe,” she murmured as her lips reached for his. She wanted to stay there and never move, but it was neither the time nor the place. He held back, refusing to let her deepen the kiss, no matter how badly he wanted to.

“It’s all right. Babe, everything’s going to be all right.” He caught a handful of rain and gently cleaned her right cheek where he had shoved it in the mud. It was the only way he knew to apologize for what he had done.

“We have to go back.” She held his hand against her face and leaned into it. “And we have to do it now,” her laugh sounded a bit strained. “If I sit in one spot too much longer I won’t be able to get up.”

“We don’t have to,” he shook his head. “I have to!” He knew that he couldn’t let her go back out into the night filled with death. She was exhausted and he had only made things worse for her. If he hadn’t ran, they would all be safely off this hellhole.

“No, not alone, neither of us, along.” She insisted as she shivered against him.

“I’ll make it faster by myself,” as he spoke she kept shaking her head no.

“Damn, stubborn woman! You’re exhausted.” Did she doubt he would go back for them? “Stay in the skiff where it’s warm and dry. I promise I’ll go back for them.” He didn’t need to add that it was the only safe place to wait, but they both knew it. And damnit, he needed to start putting some distance between them.

“I never doubted you,” she held his angry face in her small hands and looked him in the eyes. “I,” she shuddered as she remember her frightening trip from the cave to the skiff. “I’m afraid, the trip here was so terrible. I can’t stay alone. I won’t slow you down, I promise.”

She looked small and frightened and nothing like the woman who challenged him moments ago. Had he done this to her? Had he reduced her to this? Pulling her to her feet he pocketed his shiv and looked down at her. “Time’s a wasting, if you’re going, we better get started. I’ll lead, you carry the light at our backs.”

As they took off at an easy run, Richard had to fight not to take her hand. He didn’t dare touch her, because he wanted her too badly. One thing his life had taught him was that the punishment didn’t always fit the crime. But in this case he figured he was getting off easy. He had been careless and cruel in dealing with Carolyn Fry, and he would spend the rest of his life wondering ‘what if.’ Gripping his hands into fists, to add steel to his determination, he faced his punishment: set her free, so that he could never harm her again.

Monsters in the Night (Part 8)

Comes the Dawn

As he led the way back through the settlement, Riddick was amazed at how much more treacherous the footing had become since he had covered the same ground less than an hour earlier. The rain and mud was turning the sandy soil into a quagmire and he doubted he would have been able to drag the heavy power cells through it.

His shined eyes picked out aliens hidden in the dark all around them. The remembered scent of human blood, and taste of flesh had brought them back to the settlement in flocks. Their presence made the going rougher and the trail more difficult. With each step that brought them closer to the canyon, Richard wished that Carolyn had listened to reason and stayed in the skiff. He could hear her gasping for breath in the light oxygen atmosphere, but couldn’t slow his steps to make it easier for her. Against his better judgment he reached behind him and gripped her hand tightly in his. The feel of her skin against his added determination to his steps. Those things would not get her!

They crested a hill, leaving buildings behind them, and slid most of the way down. Three feet from the more solid canyon floor, Carolyn lost her balance and crashed into his back. Instinctively he reached for her, and pulled her close. Since he was unable to prevent their fall, he held her so he took the impact when they landed in the mud, then protectively rolled her beneath him covering her body with his, as they skidded to a stop under a nitch at the mouth of the canyon. Their fall sent the glow bottle rolling out of reach, and left them in the dark with a river of mud running against them.

“Do not move.” Richard whispered in her ear, as he looked up and saw two aliens less than ten feet away. He felt her muscles tense beneath him when his breath tickled her neck. Ignoring the seductive grip of her fingers as they dug into his chest, he slowly reached for his shiv. To his astonishment, the aliens hummed their song of death, but moved away from the two humans pressed against each other.

“What happened?” Carolyn looked over his shoulder, unable to see anything.

“I’ll be damned, they didn’t know we were here!” He slid them out from under the rocks and reached for the whisky bottle light as he pulled his goggles over his eyes. His harsh laughter rang out when he ran his hand in the ‘mud’ around them and got a better look at the woman beneath him.

“Well shit, Carolyn!” He gasped, trying to get his laughter under control.

“What is the matter with you?” She wondered if he was finally cracking under the stress.

“As I said, Babe, shit.” He ran his hand across her cheek and it came away covered in the same blue glop that had rained down on them when a huge flock of monsters had flown over them in the canyon.

“That’s disgusting!” She winced when she saw what they had landed in, and that the nitch that had protected them was acting as a catch basin for the run-off from the canyon.

“Not disgusting, camouflage.” He smeared a line of blue down each of her cheeks as he grinned at her. “Now you look like a merc when he’s trying to be inconspicuous.”

“Thanks a lot! You don’t have to be insulting.” She grunted and sniffed at the goo. It smelled oddly familiar and brought back memories she would rather have forgotten. For a dizzying moment she was back looking for Zeke’s body. All the terror of her search in the caverns hit her, and she couldn’t shake it free.

“Oh God, Richard,” she trembled and reached for the solid strength of the man beside her. When had the need for him become so great?

“Easy Babe,” his voice rumbled in her ear. They knelt together in the rain, surrounded by death, but he took the time necessary to sooth her. It rocked him to his core that she needed him, and even more that she would let it show after what he had tried to do to her. A man like him didn’t deserve second chances.

“I’m okay now.” Her voice caught, as she tried to extract herself from his hold and rebuild her image as tough.

“But maybe I’m not.” He gave up the fight and pulled her so close he could feel her heart beating against his chest. One hand was tangled in her hair as he guided her lips to his. Just this one last time he promised himself as he kissed her thoroughly, and wished for the first time in his life, that he were different.

The loud clicking and popping of the monsters brought them crashing to the present. As Carolyn pulled back, she quickly crossed her arms over her chest in an attempt to hide the evidence of her arousal. Even surrounded by danger he excited her. She was ashamed by her weakness, and overwhelmed by her need for him. Her mind frantically tried to remember what she had been about to say before he kissed her and wiped it clean. “You uh think… they uh… can’t detect us because of this stuff?”

“Somehow it must mask out scent.” He grinned and reached for the neckline of her shirt to pull it away from her skin. He felt strangely proud that he could excite her, as easily as she could him.

“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” She slapped at his hand, embarrassed that she hadn’t acted quickly enough, and he had noticed.

“That’s the feisty Carolyn I know,” he grinned, and then turned serious. “Can’t have you greeting Imam that way.” His voice rang with a tone he didn’t recognize, as he pointed toward her hidden breasts and nipples that pushed hard against the material that covered them. In the past it had never bothered him when his woman showed off her assets. He wasn’t the possessive type and had even been known to enjoy the occasional threesome. But Carolyn was different. No other man, not even a Holy one, could see her like this! His mind came to a screeching halt. ‘But she’s not yours, and never can be!’ A little voice shouted in his head.

“It’s from the cold!” She pulled her arms tighter around her to hide the truth. His slightest touch caused an ache deep inside of her.

“Yeah, right!” He challenged. She could try to hide it all she wanted, but when he had kissed her, their wet clothes had been an almost non-existent barrier. He had felt the instant response from her. If the monster hadn’t screamed out, he would have slide his hand under her top and warmed the sensitive flesh that had beaded against his chest, until she cried out in release.

“Well, what about you? That’s not a damn reaction to the cold!” She had felt him harden as they pressed together and it had taken all of her will power to pull away, when she longed to have him cover her body with his and slide deep inside her.

His laughter rang out at her accusation. “Hell, I’ve had a hard-on for you since I caught your scent, as far back as the crash. That fucker Johns had me chained, with a bit between my teeth, but I wanted you.” His voice had become dark and smoky as it caressed her skin.

“Richard,” she whispered and reached blindly for him.

“Carolyn?” His eyebrows twitched and he put steel into his voice, as he searched for just the right words. Things were getting out of his control again, and he had to get them back. “You think just one fuck party’s goin’ to take care of a need like that?” He watched his carefully chosen words hit their mark, as she blinked and fought to get her balance back. That’s it Babe, pull away from me. It’s the only thing that’s going to keep you safe.

Cold anger replaced the hot desire of moments ago. “Back to this theory of yours on the alien shit,” she ground out between clenched jaws.

“There’s something about human blood that says ‘dinner’ to these things, that’s why they’ve been following us.” He continued as if he had never been interrupted, but it took all his effort to keep from pulling her back into his arms and whispering words he could only guess at the meaning. “We’ve both got cuts and scrapes all over us, if they’d been able to smell it, they’d have attacked, by now. This blue shit, must be masking it, some way.”

“Jack’s arm is bleeding pretty badly, will it be enough to protect her?” Carolyn squinted in the dark to see how much of the stuff had flowed against the canyon wall and gotten caught in the U-shape of the rock. She felt empty inside. He kept leading her on, then pushing her away, and each time it became more and more painful. If all he wanted was sex, she wished he’d say so, and give her the right to choose for herself. For the moment, she couldn’t think about any of it. She’d take any strength he offered, in any form. Later she would face the truth, and pay the price, later when she wasn’t so exhausted.

“I don’t know, but it’s worth a shot.” He looked grim, as he tore off a section of his shirt and scooped a handful of the blue glop into it.

Carolyn reached over and covered her fingers in the Blue, then sniffed it carefully, mentally prepared for her reaction, this time. “I’ve smelled this before, and not just when I was looking for Zeke’s body. It was in the Coring Room, and the canyon. In fact this whole planet smells like this when the wind isn’t blowing.” She wrinkled her nose at the thought of millions of years of monster excrement that had piled up to give the sand and soil its odd smell and consistency.

“Yeah, the place is a real shithole! But those things out there can’t tell the difference, and that’s all that matters.”

He took a handful of the stuff and smeared it on Carolyn’s face and neck, while she did the same for him. It was a good excuse to touch her and he knew it, but for the moment, surrounded by death, he refused to acknowledge it. When they got safely back to the skiff, would be time enough to start his self-imposed sentence. All he had to do until then was keep her at a bit of a distance and he’d be all right.

The trip back to the cave was easier than they had expected. When they skirted the monsters, the aliens would sniff the air in confusion at the mixed scents. Their wings would move restlessly as they wondered what had passed them by, but they didn’t bother to investigate.

……………………

Riddick rolled aside the heavy rock blocking the cave and was met by Jack’s pale face and Imam’s smile. “Now that is my God, Mr. Riddick!” Relief was written all over the old man’s face.

“How you holding up, Jack?” Fry slid past Riddick and knelt beside the young girl.

“I’m okay, but I still don’t think I’ll be able to make it past the monsters out there.” She held out her arm with the bloody bandage. “You guys go without me.”

“We ain’t leaving nobody behind!” Riddick crouched and began removing the dressing from her arm. “Besides, I think we have a little secret weapon here.”

Imam used Riddick’s shiv to slice away a clean section of his robe and wrapped Jack’s arm securely to prevent any further bleeding. Carolyn helped smear the young girl with most of the Blue they had brought back.

“Yuck!” Jack glared at Fry. “You’ve covered me with monster shit!”

“With any luck, that’ll cover any blood smell.” Riddick grinned. “But to make real sure, we’ll leave a present where it’ll attract the most attention.” He picked up the dirty bandage and put it carefully to the side.

“I’m not so sure I wouldn’t rather be eaten.” The girl rolled her eyes as she smeared some of the goo on the hand of her wounded arm.

“No wise ass remarks from you, kid.” Riddick grinned at her as he covered himself in more Blue. “We’re all in this shit together.”

“You made a joke!” Jack laughed, not believing what she heard. Maybe things weren’t so bad after all.

“Me? I never joke,” he deadpanned. Then he turned serious as he looked at the faces of the others. This was their last chance and they all knew it. “You guys follow me out and wait to the left of the cave, I’ll just be a second.” He grabbed the bloodstained bandage and dashed out of the cave and to the right.

The rain still pounded as he ran ten feet back down the canyon and left the bait for the monsters, before darting back to the others.

“Everybody ready?” The four of them crouched against the rock wall of the canyon. They could hear the feeding frenzy that was going on behind them and hoped it would buy them some time.

Carolyn brushed against Richard and lay an encouraging hand on his leg. He looked back at her for a moment and wrapped his large hand around her thigh. They knew that either, or both of them might not make it to the skiff, but that moment of touch was all they had time for. He held his hand out to her and she placed hers in his, their fingers intertwined. As much as he wanted to just hold on to her, he knew it wasn’t safe. With each raindrop that fell, their camouflage was being diluted and washed away.

“Keep Jack in the middle, I’ll lead the way and everybody hold on tight!” Richard surged to his feet, as hands were gripped on down the line and they took off at a run.

Riddick heard his heart pounding with each step down the canyon. It was working; they were getting past the monsters! He kept the pace as fast as he dared. Jack was weak from blood loss, Imam was tiring badly, and he didn’t even what to think what his killing pace was doing to Carolyn, who was already exhausted.

They were almost to the hill before the settlement when Jack lost her footing and went down hard. Though she tried to break her fall with her good arm, she tore open the gash that was held tightly together with the pressure dressing. Pain shot through her and she began to bleed again.

“Riddick!” She screamed for help as an alien tentacle shot past her, cutting her right leg at the thigh, but not getting a hold of it.

He pulled her to her feet and shoved her toward Imam and Fry. “Go, run! Over the hill get the kid outta here! She’s bleeding like stink!”

As he pulled his shiv to act as rearguard, he felt Carolyn beside him. “What the fuck are you doing here! I said GO!”

“You can’t do this alone.” She was determined to get them all back to the skiff.

“God damnit, get the fuck outta here!” He saw a monster circling to their right. “I’ve been takin’ care of myself for a long time before you came along. Now get the hell outta here!”

“No!” She tried to argue with him, as she waved the light bottle back and forth in an attempt to drive away anything that might be near them.

“Shut up and run!” His fear for her made him grab her arm and roughly shove her up the incline. “And don’t look back!”

“Richard, please,” she gasped his name as she slide over the top of the hill and down the other side.

“I’m right behind ya! Keep going!” He stood his ground, and watched the alien move in for the kill; with two quick strokes of his shiv its steaming entrails lay at his feet!

“Yeah! You chose the wrong human to fuck with!” He turned and took the hill in giant strides.

………………….

Imam carried Jack the last few feet to the skiff. She was unconscious from blood loss by the time he and Carolyn lay her on one of the benches.

“You do what you can to stop the bleeding.” Fry ordered as she tossed the med-kit and a blanket at him, then turned to wait at the bottom of the ramp for Riddick.

Her eyes darted back and forth between the darkness of the surrounding area and the light of the open skiff. She had done this all before, waited in the rain for Richard. Then he had stood in the door, and challenged her to leave the others behind. It made her sick to her stomach to think how close she had come to giving in to his seductive words. But he had been the one who gave in. He rose to her challenge and they had gone back, together. Wrapping her arms around herself to keep her fears at bay, she stared out into the night and whispered his name over and over again.

A human scream in the distance made her jump. “No!” She gasped, then shouted up the ramp, “Imam, I’ve gotta help him. We can’t leave him there to die!” Her eyes were huge as she looked back at the skiff.

“Go my dear, we shall be here when you return.” His voice was full of encouragement and hope, but she didn’t hear it, her mind was focused on controlling her fear.

Carolyn ran out into the night, her glow bottle held high over her head as she called his name. It had been frightening to run through the rain with him in the lead, but to do it without him was unbearable. She had to find him.

“Richard!” Her heart pounded as she rounded the corner of a building and saw no one, and nothing moving. “God damn you Richard, where are you?”

“Carolyn,” her name came to her on the wind, out of the rainy night. “Go back, it’s too late.”

A few steps further and she saw him, crumpled on the ground among barrels and crates at the side of a building. His shiv was locked in a bloody hand as he tried to pull himself to his feet.

“Richard, thank God!” She knelt to help him up, but he collapsed in the mud. “No, damnit, no!” She wrapped both arms around his right arm at the shoulder and pulled as hard as she could. “Ya gotta help me Richard, I can’t do it by myself, you’re too heavy. We’ve gotta do this together!”

“Leave me!” He looked up at her, and tried to hide all he was feeling. God he wanted her! Not just her body, but her, all of her. She had risked her life and come back for him, even when he had been pushing her away. What had he done to deserve her? “Get the hell outta here! One of us has gotta fly that skiff, or they’re dead! Get the fuck outta here!”

“No! I won’t leave you!” What he had said made sense, but she couldn’t make herself leave, so she tried a different tactic. “Come on you coward, get to your feet! I said I wasn’t leaving anyone on this rock; don’t make a lier outta me. After all you’re Richard ‘fuckin bad-ass’ Riddick, are you gonna let these candy-assed monsters beat you?”

“Fuck you!” He knew what she was trying to do, and welcomed the surge of adrenalin that pumped new energy into his body.

“Not if you’re monster food, you won’t.” She shot back.

“You can be a real pisser when you want to be, Carolyn.” He gripped her around the shoulders and tried to get his feet under him. His leg was bleeding badly and he didn’t think it would hold him, but he had to try. He made it almost to his feet, when his leg buckled and they tumbled to the mud.

“I can’t, Babe. You gotta go before they find us. There’s blood all over me, and what little of the blue shit that’s left, won’t fool them much longer.” He pulled her to him for a quick kiss, and then shoved her away. Since he was going to die, he wanted it to be with the taste of her lips on his.

“NO!” She screamed as she grabbed the front of his shirt. “No Richard, please no. I said I’d die for them, but not you, never you. You were supposed to live! I won’t leave you.”

“No damnit, you will not die for me!” He let her pull him part way up. They knelt together as they had done once before. Bodies pressed tightly together, but this time the pouring rain was mixed with his blood. “Just get outta here, Babe. I’ll follow if I can.”

“You can’t do it alone, damnit! Let me help you, we can do it together, I know we can.” She was crying openly and didn’t care.

“Together,” he whispered as he fought to get his legs under him, leaning as much of his weight on her as she could take. It was evident she wouldn’t leave him, so unless he wanted her to die, he had to get them out of there.

“Yeah, together,” she gently touched his face as he tentatively put weight on his injured leg. “Not me for you, or..” the words stopped as she felt something sharp hit her shoulder.

“No!” Riddick shouted as he detected movement behind Carolyn. A monster was close enough to strike. He wrapped her securely in his arms. She would not be pulled away from him, not while he could still breath. “Not for me!” He cried out as he held her tightly to him, and turned them away from the on-coming attack.

The slashing claw cut them both on the shoulder, but Riddick had been successful in keeping her out of its reach. In an instant he threw her to the ground, and the hunter became the hunted. Instead of an easy kill, the creature faced a big man with a blue stained shiv in his hand, and rage that gave his body new strength.

Richard faced off with the biggest alien he had seen all night. “Come and get me you fuckin’ monster!” He shouted as he swung his shiv again and again, but still didn’t bring the creature down. “I will not die running, and you will not get this woman!” Each time he cut at the alien it pulled back and changed position, before charging again.

Riddick wanted to yell to Carolyn to run, but fighting the thing was taking all his concentration. He knew if he took the time to call to her, he would lose. Then she was beside him, armed with a glow bottle, waving it at the huge alien. The small amount of light she provided gave him some breathing room, but it wasn’t enough, they were going to die.

Suddenly the night was filled with a blinding light that caused the monster to howl as his skin was charred, sending it limping off to the safety of darkness. Riddick cried out in pain as the brightness blinded him and he backed away until he stumbled into Carolyn. The light was accompanied by the whir of an engine and the clank and bang of landing gear touching down.

“Thank God,” she whispered as she pulled Richard’s face against her neck to protect him from the brightness. “It’s the skiff! Imam must have figured out how to move the skiff!” She laughed and cried in relief, as they stood and held each other tightly, bathed in the bright lights.

“Together,” she heard him whisper as he pulled his goggles over his eyes. Neither wanted to look to closely at what that meant. Though both knew that Imam had probably made the difference between them living or dying together.

………………………..

The doors of the skiff banged shut as Carolyn fell into the pilot’s seat. She was wet and covered with blood, both hers and Richards, but she didn’t care, they were finally getting off this damn planet.

“How’s Jack?” She looked over her shoulder at Imam who had strapped the girl to the bench.

“Not good, I’m afraid.” He looked grim as he settled beside the unconscious teen. “She is in God’s hands now.”

“I’ll see if we can give God a little help, as soon as we get off this hellhole!” Carolyn shivered as she reached for the controls. They had a long way to go yet. A successful liftoff was only one of their worries.

“We can’t leave without saying a proper good-bye.” Richard grinned at her from the co-pilot’s seat as he powered down the craft.

“Don’t want to be impolite, it wouldn’t be good for interplanetary relations,” she nodded and counted to twenty. If she closed her eyes she imagined she could hear the sounds of the creatures as they surrounded the shuttle.

“But we wouldn’t want to out-stay our welcome.” Richard nodded to Carolyn to be the one to fire up the engines.

“No we wouldn’t!” She hit the lights and punched the power in one quick movement. As they were thrown back in their seats, she wished she could hear the dying screams of the hundreds of aliens that had flocked around the skiff, following the trail of blood they had left behind.

……………………

Looking back from space, on the striking beauty of the three suns being eclipsed by the large ringed planet, it was hard to believe that the horror they had escaped was real. Carolyn took the skiff into a rolling turn and under the asteroide belt that had been brought into the system’s gravity by the passing comet. Once they were in open space she went to auxiliary power to give them time to figure out what to do next.

“Any idea’s where we are?” She looked at the stars trying to find something that looked familiar. “You keep an eye out for visitors, I think I’ve parked us close enough to that asteroid belt so we’ll be almost undetectable.” She nodded to Richard and climbed into the back.

“I gather there is a problem?” Imam moved forward and took the seat that Fry had vacated.

As she carefully checked Jack over, she could hear Richard telling Imam about the black box, the raiders, and Owens’s treachery.

“You are right to worry, my friend.” Imam nodded his head toward Carolyn. “There may be something I can do to help.” The Holyman looked at the stars. “But our options may be dictated by the child’s health.”

“What is it you could do to help?” Riddick was skeptical, but like the other man agreed that Jack came first.

“You forget Mr. Riddick I wasn’t always a Holy man. Just like I don’t think Captain Fry was always a pilot.” He nodded at Carolyn’s almost professional suturing of Jack’s wounds. “Where did you get your medical expertise?”

“When I was a kid, I lived on a merchant vessel with my uncle.” She shrugged as she worked. It had been a long time since she had been called on to do anything like this, and was glad the skill had come back so easily. “The first couple of years I helped earn my keep by assisting the medic. He taught me a lot.” She grinned as she remembered the old man who had helped make her feel useful in those first few months after her parents had died.

“It looks as if you learned well.”

“I can get by.” She turned toward the two men who were looking at her as if she had the answers. “Hell, this is just a step above basic first aide, for crying out loud! All I did was close some deep gashes. That doesn’t mean she’s going to live!” She leaned back against the opposite bench with her face in her hands. She could feel the death grip from that damn planet and wanted to scream at it to let the child go, but she didn’t allow herself the luxury.

Riddick nodded to Imam to be sure he was comfortable with the controls, then he moved to sit beside the woman who had come to mean so much to him. “Carolyn, this wasn’t your doing.”

“I know, but there has to something more we can do for her.” She leaned against his shoulder.

“What about the cryo-sleep lockers?” He nodded toward the two cramped tubes one on each side of the skiff. “Are they operational?”

“Yes! And it just might buy us some time.”

All three adults moved quickly to recheck the sleep lockers, and get Jack safely into one. A quick check of environmentals showed that the slight increase in power usage would be more than offset by the saving in oxygen and water.

“That should do it,” Carolyn nodded as she adjusted the settings on the locker. “We need to keep a careful watch on her vital signs, but I’ve heard stories of injured people living for months like this, though I think we should head straight for the next inhabited planet with a humanoid hospital.”

“May I suggest you two clean each other up, while I check out the star charts,” Imam returned to the pilot’s seat. “If I can get the Hunter-Gratznia’s charts from the black box, and superimpose them on the older ones on the skiff’s computer, I may be able to come up with some answers.”

“We can’t mix the information, or it’ll leave a trail right back to Carolyn!” Riddick glared at the old man. Not willing to do anything that might bring her harm.

“Do not worry, Mr. Riddick, I am adept at handling problems such as this.” He carefully opened the box and pulled out an information disk. “There will be no evidence left behind that the two computers have exchanged information. The trick is to remove only the needed data, while leaving behind the tracking program.”

Riddick was getting a bad feeling. Anyone who had Imam’s skills with Company equipment had to be high up in the organization. The ex-spook had never heard of anyone that high up being allowed to live on the outside. It had been his job, on more than one occasion, to be sure anyone who left was kept very very silent.

“Trust me, Mr. Riddick.” He nodded toward Carolyn. “I will let no harm come to anyone because of my knowledge.”

……………………

“Richard, take off your pants.” Carolyn knelt beside him between the benches on the floor of the skiff.

“What is it about this exact place that makes you always want my clothes off?” He grinned at her as he removed his boot and carefully pulled his injured leg free of clothing.

“Pleaaasssee,” she rolled her eyes at him, then suddenly turned serious. “This is going to hurt. I’m sorry, but there’s nothing in the med-kid for pain.”

“Something else we can thank our friend Johns for.” He grunted, then took her hand and gave it a squeeze. He could see she was more upset about the lack of an anesthetic than he was. “It’s okay Babe, I’ll hold as still as you need.”

She nodded to him and went to work. His leg was cut the deepest and took three layers of suturing. His only response was a gasp he couldn’t suppress, when she gently pulled muscle back in place to close it evenly. She was thankful it was a relatively small wound or scar tissue might cause him permanent damage. Her stomach was rolling by the time she moved to the simple skin closure on his shoulder.

He had never taken his eyes off her face, but since he was wearing his goggles, she didn’t know it. As she concentrated, every emotion had been clearly displayed for him to see. It cut him to the core to see the pain he was causing her, but knew there was nothing he could say or do that would make it easier on her. He eyed the clean bandage on her shoulder and wondered if he would have had the strength necessary to systematically drive a small semi-circular needle in and out of her flesh, if it had been needed?

“There, that should do it.” She whispered. Her hands shook and sweat had broken out on her forehead by the time she had finished. “A few more dressings and you’re all set.”

“Come here,” he reached for the needle holder in her limp right hand and set it carefully aside. “You did great.” He rocked her gently back and forth, as she shivered in his arms. He hadn’t meant to touch her like this again, but he couldn’t stop himself. Later he would send her away, later. Besides he rationalized, she was safe, with Imam present. No matter how casual Riddick had been in the past, he knew he would never touch her improperly in the presence of others.

“Richard,” her hands gripped his face and she looked deep into his eyes. He had gone away from her, again. She hated when he did that, because when he came back he usually tried to push her as far away as possible. Not this time! Before he knew what she was up to, she kissed him, and then quickly pulled out of his arms. “Get dressed, I’ll be upfront with Imam. By the way, keep the leg elevated and until we’re sure how badly it’s going to swell, I wouldn’t wear the boots.”

Monsters in the Night (Part 8)

A wave of dizziness almost brought Carolyn to her knees. The bravado she had needed to turn her back on Richard, and head the few feet to the cockpit had disappeared along with the adrenalin high she had been riding, every since their last run through the night. Her hands shook and she was left feeling fragile and stretched too thin. Trying to regain her balance, she slowly blinked while turning away from both men, Imam at the controls and Riddick aft, on the deck between the benches. But it didn’t help. Her evasive maneuver brought her face to face with Jack’s cryo-locker. In the garish red light of the chamber the teen looked waxy, almost dead. A quick check of the read-outs set her mind at ease, but did nothing to relieve her light-headedness. She closed her eyes and leaned her forehead against the cool plastiglass that kept the injured girl wrapped in a protective bubble.

She heard Riddick grunt as he pulled on his pants, but refused to turn around until she was back in control. Her stomach still heaved from the pain she had caused him when she had stitched muscle to muscle and fascia to fascia, then finally closed his skin in a neat pattern. Though she found it frightening that he had been capable of sitting in stoic silence while she worked on him, she doubted she would have had the strength to close the deep gashes in his leg and shoulder if he hadn’t. Even in pain he had given her emotional support. It was a heady thought, but one she didn’t dare get used to.

Taking a deep breath she tried to block him from her mind, but too much had happened in the last hours. They were in space; she was the pilot again and, back in her element. Had her mistakes cost her the iron control she needed to survive?

Her thoughts were interrupted as a blanket was wrapped around her shoulders and large hands smoothed it over her arms. In a moment of weakness she leaned against the powerful body behind her, but didn’t give in to the urge to turn and curl against him.

“You need to get some sleep, Babe.” Richard whispered in her ear as he rubbed her arms to warm them under the blanket. Why was it so painful to see her so drained? In the past he had only thought of himself. “You’re done in.”

“I’m fine,” she turned and forced a smile that didn’t reach her eyes. “Besides we’re all tired, and there are things to do before, I can sleep.”

“From the look of Imam’s skill at the helm, there are two of us to help you get them done.” He had looked over his shoulder as the Holyman’s fingers flew over the controls. In light of this new knowledge, the quiet man’s cryptic words about his past took on a new meaning.

“Richard, I’m fine!” She snapped. It was taking all her energy to keep from sinking against him and letting him hold her forever. He had made her feel safe when there was no safety, and strong when she had been at her weakest, but it had to stop somewhere.

“Naw you’re not. None of us are, but you least of all.” He had seen the look that came across her face as she fought her emotions. It’s got you too? His first instinct had been to push her away, before he became tangled in the depth of her eyes, but the bruise on her jaw had caught his attention. Johns had put it there and he froze inside when he thought what else the merc might have done to her. His fingers moved lightly over her marred skin. His stomach twisted and his nostrils flared as he tried to find the words to ask her if she had been raped.

“Carolyn, Richard,” Imam called them back to the present. “This should be of interest to you.”

“What ya got there?” Carolyn turned away from probing shined eyes, relieved to have staved off any questions until later. Once her emotions were back under control, then maybe she would have the courage to look at her feelings for Richard, until then she wasn’t ready to talk about them. For the moment she held fast to the illusion that he cared about her, not just her body. It was all that kept her functioning.

“You got some hidden talents, Old Man.” Riddick watched Imam manipulate the computer and black box, easily extracting the information they needed. It was hard to believe this was the same unassuming holy man they had spent the last fifty hours with.

“As I’ve tried to tell you on a number of occasions, Mr. Riddick, I led a different life once.” He arched a brow at the man behind him; pleased his old skills came in so handy.

When they studied the reconstructed star charts they considered themselves lucky to have crashed when they did. The H-G had passed into a section of space known as The Ulysses Triangle. Its furthest corner was marked by the vast black hole Cilia. The sun Hydria, and the dead world of Cassandra formed the base of the triangle. They were a good two weeks from even the most sparsely traveled shipping lanes.

Hydria was a huge unstable gas giant with a tremendous amount of gravitational pull. It had been known to suck ships off course and into its fiery path from great distances. The constant solar activity played havoc with transmissions and often gave off false readings to navputers.

Cassandra was an ice planet caught in the grips of nuclear winter. On official charts it was called by its astronomical designation, Yankee 2020, but pilots and navigators didn’t call it that. Some space jockey with knowledge of Greek mythology had dubbed it Cassandra. The name had stuck, because from the few probes that had survived, to send back any data, it appeared that its long dead residence had repeatedly raped the land and environment by stripping it of any natural resources, then polluted it before killing it and themselves in a catastrophic war. The unstable atmosphere from the dead planet had been creating plasma storms and flinging them out into space at random, since before mankind crawled out of the dark ages.

It was theorized that Cilia, a gaping tear in space, was responsible for the Triangle being filled with pulsars, gravity wells and odd space anomalies. No one knew for sure, since all attempts to study her had failed. Man had yet to build a ship that could get close enough to a black hole to send in probes, without being pulled apart.

“Why in the fuck did that asshole, Owens try to navigate this area by computer?” Fry shook her head in disgust as Imam gave her back the pilot’s seat. There were still some jobs that needed the delicate touch that could only come from a living being.

“He didn’t.” The Holyman pointed to the simulation that was taking shape on the skiff’s computer. “I’ve reconstructed our path from the data in the Hunter-G’s black box. It appears as if we were side swiped by the ion wash of a plasma storm. Anything stronger and it would have ripped us apart. But it was powerful enough to scramble the navputer, and send us veering off into space, away from Owens’s intended course, as well as New Mecca. We’re just lucky we crashed before we had gone much further. Once Hydria got us in her pull, there would be no getting out of here. Even now, we’ll have to be vigilant to keep from getting sucked further in.” All three possible courses of the large freighter had appeared on the three dimensional chart in front of them.

“Fuck! We’re in the middle of nowhere!” Carolyn exclaimed. She could remember her uncle telling stories about ships that disappeared into the Triangle, and were never heard from again. It was even said that space monsters roamed this area. Until a few days ago she had always laughed at the idea of alien monsters, now she was ready to believe anything.

“True, but we’re also, weeks away from the intended rendezvous with the pirates.” Imam worked the math to give them a more accurate window of time.

“So, for now we’re safe, if we’re careful.” Riddick stood quietly behind Carolyn’s chair, his arms rested on its back. Every time she moved her head, her hair rubbed against his skin and sent a tingle through him. It brought back vivid memories of the first time he had felt the silky strands between his fingers, while hiding in the skull of a long dead animal. The soft blonde curls still had the power to make him catch his breath. ‘Damn, what the fuck is happening to me?’ His mind tried to fix on the exact moment when she had become so important to him, but everything since the crash had blurred, except for the knowledge that she had become essential to his well being.

“If this information is correct, we’ve got 3 ½ to 4 weeks before anyone could get to us from the coordinates set by Owens.” Imam looked to the others as they nodded in agreement. “I believe we’re safe for now, even if anyone did pick up our final distress call.”

Carolyn relaxed in her seat, and let her shoulders sag, as she wearily rubbed her face. “First order of the day is to get some sleep, we’ll be better able to plan once we’ve rested. Riddick and I’ll take turns at the con.” She looked up at him, just realizing that he had been absent-mindedly twisting a strand of her hair around his finger.

“Carolyn,” Imam reached for her arm. “Include me in the watch schedule. It’s been a while, but I’ve flown crafts like this one in the past.” His usual open calm expression had turned to stone, as if he was looking into the face of something that was too painful to remember.

“We could use the help.” She covered his hand with hers in a gesture that conveyed support, and thanked him for coming to their aid, when it obviously cost him a great deal. “I’ll take the first watch. In four hours I’ll wake Richard, then he’ll wake you in another four.” She reached for the internal lighting system and set it for ship’s-night, expecting both men to move to the back.

“No.” Riddick stood firmly beside her while he pulled off his goggles, and Imam moved past him to stretch-out on the bench beside Jack’s sleep tube. “I’ll take the first one.”

“That was an order, not a fuckin’ suggestion, Mister!” For a moment she was able to keep up her old tough facade, but it was costing her. She was a pilot again, and this time she would do it right. Nothing would happen to the passengers on her watch! But as he settled into the co-pilot’s seat, she began to crumble.

“Please Richard, don’t give me an argument.” There wasn’t much fight left in her, so she told it to him straight. “This is something I have to do.” If he pushed her, she was afraid she would give up. It would be easy to keep taking his support, but then the old Carolyn Fry would be gone, and she wouldn’t know who she was anymore. That would be fine for the time being, but when this was all over, and she was alone again, she would be lost. It was going to be hard enough learning to live with the knowledge that she had deliberately tried to kill all her passengers, without adding more to her load.

As if he could read her mind, he nodded and closed his eyes as he slid his seat back into a reclining position. “Have it your way, Babe, but I’m here if you need me.” She could be so stubborn and brave, it made his heart hurt. But she was right, they had to start depending on each other less, it would make it easier, when they reached their final destination.

………………………

Carolyn felt her body start to fall forward in sleep. Reflexively she jerked upright and forced her eyes open. Her first response was to quickly scan the navputer before she relaxed and repositioned herself in the pilot’s seat of the old skiff. Only when she knew the ship was safe, did she allow herself to check on her companions. Imam was asleep on his bench in the back, his hand touching Jack’s cryo-tube, as if he would protect her even in his sleep. The sound of his gentle snoring made her smile, as she angled her head to see the man who slept in the co-pilot’s seat.

Richard, her mind froze when she looked at him. He had turned his reclined seat sideways. Had he been watching her from the side while she worked? His injured leg was raised, with his heel hooked into the pilot’s coffee cup holder inches away from her. In the tiny cockpit, he was so close she could have reached out and touched him without really trying. Instead her eyes followed the contours of his body, bringing back stark memories of how his skin had felt against hers.

She was mesmerized by the steady rise and fall of his chest. For the first time he appeared truly relaxed. Even when she had seen him in his cryo tube, he had seemed to be fighting some inner demon, but not now. Taking her time she enjoyed studying him, as she could never do when he was awake. He had come to epitomize strength and safety, over the last few days. He had made her feel things she had never thought she would feel. She was going to miss those feelings when this was all over, because deep in her heart she knew that it was going to end, and he was going to leave her. There could be no other way for them. Two sinners didn’t deserve a happy ending. Sitting there with only the stars to see her, Carolyn faced the truth, and mourned the loss of a piece of her that would be gone forever.

Blinking tears out of her eyes, she had a sudden longing to know what it felt like to sleep in his arms. To feel his body wrapped around hers in the quiet moments of the night; to wake with his breath against her ear as she turned to him in the early hours of dawn, and felt him move against her in passion, as he filled her, until they both cried out in joy. She knew without a doubt that she wouldn’t be able to share these things with any other man. She would probably give in to her body’s needs and experience sex sometime in the future, but intimacy, would never be her, again.

“Carolyn,” Richard’s voice was husky with passion as he returned his seat to a sitting position and leaned across the space between them. “Come here.” He held out his arms, but she had frozen in place.

“I thought you were asleep,” she whispered. She hadn’t seen his eyes open until the light from the stars reflected off of them, and then it was too late. He had caught her staring.

“I know you did.” Leaning over, he easily lifted her onto his lap. To his surprise, she didn’t fight him. “You forget, it meant my life if I was caught napping in Slam.”

“How long have you been awake?” She let him pull her body against his and absorbed his warmth.

“Since you started watchin’ me.” He moved his thumb across her damp cheek and followed the contours of her face until he came to the black and blue splotch on her jaw. “How badly did Johns hurt you?”

His question caught her off guard. At first she didn’t realize what he was asking, but the hard look that had come across his features told her he was serious. “He didn’t hurt me at all.”

“Then how’d you get the bruise?” Why couldn’t he come out and ask her what he needed to know? He had lived a rough life and the women he had known weren’t always treated, as they should be. But with her it tore at his gut to think she might have been violated.

“It’s my own fault,” she wanted to hide her face against him as she flushed in embarrassment, but his hand kept her head tilted gently upward. “After I did the systems check, I was real angry and I guess, well,” she toyed with the neckline of his shirt and couldn’t meet his eyes. “Well I, uh, picked a fight with the bastard. I had a need to hit somebody or something and he was handy.” She felt his shoulders relax as she told him about the fight and how Johns had gotten one punch past her guard.

“Something really pissed you off, did it?” He knew why she had been upset, but didn’t know what to do with the knowledge.

“More likely someone!” She admitted, but raised her chin in defiance of the pain and anger she had felt when Richard had pushed her away after making love. LOVE? How long had she felt that way about him? The thought frightened her badly, so she tried to ignore it. “Besides Johns’d been asking for it from the start, it was about time someone knocked him down to size!” She added in an attempt to keep her emotions hidden.

“Atta girl,” he whispered. Damn, he should have done severe damage to that fuckin merc long before Carolyn had had to take matters into her own hands, but she was one hell of a woman to have done what he should have! He could picture her attacking the much larger merc and pride and relief washed over him. Johns had used lies to try and manipulate both of them. If the fucker weren’t already dead, he would feed him to the monsters a second time.

“You can relax now, Babe. I’ll take care of things.” He felt her soft breath against his neck as she moved closer to absorb his body heat. He wanted to carry her to the back of the shuttle and let passion burn away the memory of the cruel words he had used to taunt her while attempting to erase all that had happened between them during the sys-check. But even if they had been alone, he wouldn’t have done that to her. So he did the only thing he could to try to wipe away the pain he had caused her. He wrapped her blanket around her and held her tightly against him.

“Okay, you’ve got the watch.” She shivered and sighed, as she gave into the need for sleep. Just this one last time she promised herself, as her eyes grew heavy. Once she was rested, then she would be strong enough to pull away. It was only her need for sleep that was causing her to have these odd feelings.

On the other side of the cockpit window, space was vast and full of stars, but there were no fast moving objects hurtling toward them to cause hull breaches or ships that might be tracking them. Riddick enjoyed the view as he watched the readouts from the navputer to be sure they stayed in orbit of the small moon on the outskirts of the asteroide field. In the far distance he could see the eclipsed suns from their monster planet.

Looking down at the woman in his arms he smiled as she whispered quietly in her sleep. Her eyes moved as if she was dreaming and he hoped they were good dreams. What was he going to do with her? The answer was simple: nothing. He was going to do nothing with her. As soon as he was sure she was safe, he was gone. Safe from aliens, safe from raiders, safe from the Company, then she would be safe from him as well. He had almost destroyed her twice; he wasn’t going to let that happen again. Smiling he watched her sleep. It was a chance he would never get again, so he planned on taking full advantage of it.

…………………..

Imam blinked, something had awakened him. The skiff was quiet and he knew it wasn’t his turn for the watch. His first thought was of Jack, but looking up at the gauges he was reassured, there was no change in the child’s condition.

He lifted his head and looked toward the cockpit. Riddick was silhouetted against the backdrop of distance stars, his injured leg rested on the console. Carolyn’s pale blonde head was in the crook of his arm. In an unguarded moment, the hard man caressed her face, then kissed her lightly on the forehead. It made the Holyman smile to see gentleness coming from a man like that. Maybe he finally figured out what this was all about? The satisfaction lasted only until Richard looked up quickly, some slight movement in the back of the skiff had diverted his attention. Then Imam could see the battle the man was fighting.

“I know what you’re thinking,” he sat up and moved stiffly to the pilot’s seat beside Riddick. “And you’re wrong.”

“Just what is it you know, Old Man?” Riddick whispered, but the menace was clear in his voice.

“That she’ll be safer if you leave her.” Warm brown eyes met cold shined ones. Each was reading the other, and neither man wanted to be the one to give in.

“What makes you think I want to stay with her?” Riddick neatly sidestepped the issue.

“I know that look on your face.” The older man’s eyes clouded as he thought back many years. “I used to see it on mine every time I looked in my shaving mirror.”

As if to deny his feelings, Richard slowly stood and carried Carolyn to the back of the skiff. Stooping with her balanced on his knees, he made a nest of blankets on the deck between the benches. After laying her on the padded ground, he took the blanket Imam left behind and wrapped it snugly around her.

“Richard,” she murmured as she fell deeper asleep.

“Right here, Babe, watchin over you.” His quiet words were barely audible, but from the slight smile that crossed her face, he knew she had heard.

Back in the cockpit the two men faced each other from the short distance between the pilot and co-pilot’s seat. Both looked hard and tough. It was time for serious talk and both knew it.

“You’re Company, you got it written all the fuck over you.” Riddick glared at the man who up until an hour ago, he had begun to trust.

“I was Company, but that was almost twenty years ago.”

“Don’t bullshit me! You cracked that black box like a child’s toy. A man who can do that isn’t allowed to just leave. I should know.” He felt for his shiv in his back pocket, it was within easy reach, he only hoped he didn’t have to use it.

“Are you planning on killing me Riddick?” The hard cold voice and stiff expression was one he hadn’t used in years. It disappointed the Holyman to find that it was still a part of his character.

“That depends on you.” Richard looked around the skiff, eyeing the woman sleeping in the back and child in her protective sleep tube. “And on them. You convince me that no harm will come to them, because of you, and you live. Simple as that.”

“You have no worries about yourself?” Imam smiled. Riddick had put the others before himself, and that was a good sign.

“One thing Johns taught me this time around, is that I’ll never be taken alive again, so I don’t matter, but those two, they’re a different story. They deserve to live and be happy.”

“Funny Jack said the same thing,” he could still hear the child’s words echoing back at him from inside the tiny cave. “About not being taken alive. But I agree with you, their safety is of utmost importance.” The black man nodded. “No harm will come to any of you because of me. I had already planned on taking Jack with me, and that issue isn’t open for discussion. I have no one, and she has no one; together we can be a family. New Mecca would be a good place for us to make a real home.”

“We’ll see about that.” Riddick understood what it was like to grow up an indentured foster kid. Being tossed from one ‘family’ to another, your contract sold to whoever needed a strong back to get a job done. In Jack’s case, it was obvious that she had been used for more than labor. Imam’s talk of a family was just what the child needed, but first Richard had to be sure he was being told the truth. In light of what he had just learned, it was hard to believe in the old man. He knew that nothing was as it seemed when the Company was involved.

“I can see you doubt my intentions.” Eyes that had been a hard brown softened in pain. “Ask me what you like, I promise you the truth, no matter how difficult.”

“Tell me how you plan on keeping them safe?”

“Jack is easy,” Imam smiled. “Though most runaways don’t realize it, the foster program doesn’t hunt them. It isn’t economical. There are plenty of homeless children to fill the gaps in the workforce. As long as a child doesn’t break the law, or do anything that would bring undo notice to themselves, they are left alone.”

“You’ve left out the small matter of the Company.” Riddick pushed. “And your involvement in it.”

“They believed I died a long time ago. There is no one alive today that would recognize me. I saw to that when I left.” His voice hitched as he remembered the last orders he had given to one of his favorite spooks, and the tragedy he had been unable to foresee. “If this new incident should cause them to look our way, all they will notice is an old holy man and the child he adopted, living in peace on New Mecca.”

“What about Carolyn, you plan on taking her to New Mecca, too?” The idea of her joining Imam and Jack in a home was painful for reasons he wouldn’t examine.

“No, not even the countless layers of religious laws would keep her safe there. It would be best if it were believed that she died on that planet back there.” The Holyman nodded toward the view screen. “In fact it would be best if you were both reported dead. Because once the Hunter-Gratznia is found, and it will be found one day, the Company will come looking for all survivors. Jack and I can easily be overlooked as useless passengers, but you and Carolyn, are a different matter. If you want her to be truly safe, you must stay with her.” He told a truth that Riddick didn’t want to hear. “I can see that she is well hidden, but only you can protect her.”

“Me? I’d just get her killed, or worse.” He had tried to turn her into a murderer once, just to keep her with him. If she was his even for a short while, he knew he would do anything to prevent her leaving.

“I’ve seen you perform acts of great kindness and bravery, those aren’t the actions of a man with your reputation.” Dark brown eyes probed for the soul of a sinner.

“Riddick did die on that planet, but I don’t know who this new person is, or what he’ll do.” The big man shrugged, afraid to trust himself, no matter what had happened in the last few hours. “Besides, I was born a killer, not just trained to be one. Though the training I received made me fuckin good at it!”

“Are you so sure you’re nothing but a killer?”

“You were Company, you should know the answer!” Riddick’s whisper snapped like a whip. “Their spooks have to be cold-blooded killers. It takes a certain type of person to do that, and I was one of their best.”

Imam watched the large man carefully. The answer to his next question would tell the story. “Had you killed before you went to the Company for training?”

“Naw, but I’d been in trouble with the law, and was headin’ that way.” Riddick shrugged. He remembered the tough kid he had been, made even tougher by his upbringing. But there were other memories too. The joy he had gotten from flying, the year he had been fostered out to the captain of a cargo ship. The man had been kind and had encouraged his hopes of becoming a pilot, even promising him a job after the Company certified him. “But instead of teaching me to fly and navigate cargo ships, I was taught to kill. It turned out that was what I was best suited for.” He pulled his shiv and held it in his open palm.

“They lied to you!” Imam’s quiet words shook the other man to his foundation.

“How do you know that?” His hand tightened around the shiv. He felt his beliefs lurch. Anger was close to the surface, but he needed the truth before he sliced the other man’s throat.

“As you’ve pointed out, I was Company.” The older man turned and checked the navputer, as he steeled himself to tell Riddick the truth. “There must have been a need for an assassins when you were tested. They would have been looking for a person with a strong survival instinct, but not an animal one. He would have had to have potential skills as a pilot and a navigator, so he could travel on his own when on company business, if necessary. It was felt that this kind of person would be more loyal if he believed that he was a born killer, and the Company was making good use of his skills. Unfortunately, it was discovered that over the years, if an assassin was used too often he became the animal the Spook Corps had made him believe he was, or else his real self began to re-emerge and he rebelled against the Company. When that happened, he had to be terminated.”

“You’re saying that’s what happened to me?” Riddick hissed and pulled his shiv, again.

“I am.” Imam challenged. “Think about it. Why didn’t you kill Johns when you had the chance? You certainly had a good reason.” He nodded toward Carolyn, as she tossed in her sleep.

“You never did tell me what ya did for the Company.” Riddick’s quiet whisper made the hackles rise on the other man’s neck. He could tell from the look in the convict’s shined eyes that he was beginning to listen to him.

“I started the Spook program 35 years ago and headed it up for the next 15.” Imam had promised Richard honesty, but he had hoped to avoid this topic.

“You fuckin son of a bitch!” The big man lunged toward the older one. It was the truth, then. The last twelve years of his life had been wasted. They had made him what he was and he had done their dirty work. When his real nature began to show through, and he rebelled, he was thrown away to rot in Slam.

He grabbed the collar of the Holyman’s robes, and yanked him out of the pilot’s seat. Then pinned him to the wall of the skiff. Riddick’s large arm dug into the smaller man’s throat, effectively cutting off his air, while his shiv threatened to cut off his blood supply. “Maybe it’s time we put my real nature to the test!”

“Richard, no!” Carolyn shouted, and grabbed his arm, to separate the two men. She had been shaken out of a nightmare by angry voices. Her eyes were clouded, and it was hard to make sense of what she was seeing. “Don’t hurt him, please.”

“Get the fuck away from me!” He turned to her and tried to pull his arm free, but she held on too tightly. He was filled with rage as he tried to shake her free. His arm swung back, but she wouldn’t let go. He put his body into it, and he felt her grip loosening, then she stumbled and went flying backward.

“Richard,” she cried out in surprise, reaching out for him as she fell.

For a moment he froze in shock at what he’d done. Then as his red haze of anger began to clear, he grabbed for her, but his hand came away with nothing but air. Both men watched in horror as her arms flailed and she landed hard, knocking the air out of her. The blankets she had left in a pile, between the benches, were all that prevented her from cracking her head on the deck.

Riddick’s grip relaxed on Imam and he slowly pocked his shiv. His face was the same hard mask that he had worn when they had first crashed. “I guess I just proved my point, on all counts, Old Man.” He turned on his heel and walked back to Carolyn. Stopping he lifted her to her feet, as he steadied her to make sure she could stand on her own. Then he gently pushed her toward the cockpit, as he draped a blanket around her shoulders. Never once saying a word.

She turned toward him unable to fathom what had happened. But he shook his head and refused to acknowledge her questioning eyes, as he stiffly lowered himself to the deck. Ignoring the two shocked people, he lay back feeling old and drained. He’d done it; he’d finally pushed her away for good this time. There would be no going back, no more touching or pretending that things could be more than they were. Though he would’ve bet his life that he’d never of hurt her physically. At least it had been a controlled situation and she was safe, now.

………………………..

“What the fuck was that all about!” Carolyn slid into the co-pilot’s seat. She looked between Richard’s broad back, that he had pointedly turned toward them, and Imam beside her.

“It is up to him to tell you. Suffice it to say, Richard’s anger was well deserved. If he had killed me, he would have been within his rights.”

“How can you say that?” Her eyes flashed in anger. “It’s my job to keep the peace around here.”

“My dear, conversations with a holy man fall under professional confidence. Not even a ship’s Captain may intrude on that.” He smiled as she rolled her eyes, and huffed in disgust. “You were not hurt from the fall?”

“Of course not.” She recognized the deeper question buried beneath the casual one. “Richard surprised me, but he didn’t hurt me.”

“I’m afraid that he doesn’t see it that way.” Imam looked over his shoulder at the sleeping man.

“He’ll be fine once he gets some rest.” Carolyn pulled her legs up into her seat and rested her head on her knees. She needed to talk to the Holyman about some concerns of her own so she was glad for their privacy.

“I can see there is something on your mind, child.” He offered, as he divided his attention between her and the star charts.

“What Johns said about me is true. I really did try to flush the passenger cabin when we were going to crash. How do I learn to deal with that?” She couldn’t look at him, so she stared out at the distance stars. “Will God forgive me for what I would have done?”

“Learning to live with what happened has to be done from within. It’s something only you can do. I can offer you my opinion, though.” The Holyman gave her his full attention. “But it is a very human one.”

“Anything would be a help.”

In the back of the skiff, Richard had forced himself to stay awake and listen. If the Holyman cut the world out from under Carolyn the way he had him, nothing would save the old man from his wrath.

“You are a strong, honest woman, my dear. From what I knew of Capt. Mitchell’s reputation, he didn’t brook incompetence, especially on his bridge. So it stands to reason you’re a very good pilot, as well.”

“Then what happened to me?” The anguish in her voice made Riddick wince from where he was listening in the dark.

“Since knowing you on the planet, there is only one conclusion I can come to. Some people might call it cold sleep disorientation, but I think it is more than that. I believe that God intended for you to do what you did.”

“What!”

“For a reason I can only guess at, I believe that it was God’s will that you pulled that release lever. If he had meant you to flush the passengers, the mechanism wouldn’t have jammed, and the rear cabin would have been dumped.

“What kind of God do you worship, that would do such a thing?” Carolyn was horrified by what she was being told.

“A loving and forgiving God, but one that makes a person reach for his own salvation.” He nodded toward the back of the ship. “You have made the difference in the life of at least one of us on this trip. You have made him look at himself, as he never did before, and question his values. Think about it, my dear. If you had been a pious always-perfect pilot who never made a mistake, would you have been capable of understanding a man like Riddick. Would you have been willing to go looking for Zeke’s body to prove that he didn’t kill him? But more importantly, would he have been able to accept you as a helpmate and lover if you hadn’t done what you did.”

………………………

In the back of the skiff, Riddick was filled with guilt. He knew the answers to the questions Carolyn was being asked. He could see himself sitting in the hot dead skull, listening to her talk to Johns, while he tried to decide which cut would be the quietest, and if her oxygen was worth the chance of discovery. When he heard her confession, everything changed. Instead of cutting her throat, he sliced off a curl that set his heart racing. She had been his from that moment on. But being his only had caused her misery.

………………………...

“You knew that we, that Richard and I..?” Carolyn flushed to the roots of her fair hair and wondered who else might have suspected what had really gone on during the long systems check. When she was finally able to meet Imam’s eyes, she expected to see disappointment or at least censor on his face, but there was none.

“You have no worry, Child, you were discreet, but you are also human. There is a deep attraction between the two of you, isn’t there?” He smiled and remembered back a long way.

“Yes, but I’m not sure what to do about it.” She whispered, afraid to say the words out loud. “He makes me feel things I never thought I’d feel.”

“The two of you are stronger together than alone. You fill in the gaps in each other, making a whole that is stronger than the sum of its parts.” He wondered what Riddick would think if he heard himself being discussed in such philosophical terms. “The trick will be convincing Richard that he isn’t a liability to you.” Imam smiled sadly. “I hope he doesn’t make my mistake.”

“Would it help to talk about it?” Carolyn could see the pain that thinking of the past was causing the old man. Maybe if she understood what he had been through, she would be better prepared when Richard walked out of her life.

“As I am sure you realized I worked for the Company at one time. I met Emma when I was making my final preparations to get out from under them. She was the daughter of a miner on Omega Prime, and I loved her from the moment I saw her. The time came for me to leave. Everything had been set; every contingency had been planned for, except in my years of meticulous planning I hadn’t planned on Emma. She begged me to take her with me, but I refused, thinking she would be safer with her family until I was sure I was in the clear. I believed that once I got to my sanctuary I could ride out the storm while a trusted friend took care of all those who would kill me. Then I could wait out a few months for the dust to settle, and I come back for her. What I didn’t know was that my friend knew about Emma. Though he followed my orders and disposed of those who would have me hunted, he saw a way out for himself by turning me in. When I returned for her I found him waiting for me with his shiv still covered with her blood. I killed with my own hands that day for the first and last time.”

“My God, Imam, how terrible!” She began to understand why Richard had been so angry. His involvement with the Company had to have run deep, and something he had done in the past must have impacted on Riddick’s life. “Did you know him in your Company days?”

“No, I was gone a long time before he came along. Emma died almost 20 years ago.” A sad smile crossed his face as he remembered. “After I killed the man who killed her, I held her in my arms, not wanting to let her go. Her father found us hours later. It was his quick thinking that saved me. We put my identification on the spook and we burned down the cabin with both bodies in it. Later when the Company found it, one body was ID as mine; the other was officially listed as a Jane Doe. Case closed, all lose ends tied up. One runaway executive and the spook who hunted him dead.”

“I’m so sorry, Imam.” Carolyn reached over the squeezed his hand.

“Some good did come out of it.” He tried to pull himself back to the present. “Her father sent me to New Mecca to hide in a monastery since the thought of going back to the home I would have shared with Emma, turned my stomach. During my long months in hiding I found God. I have come to believe that I was on the Hunter-Gratznia for a reason. If those star charts are correct, then I know why, because we’re only a three-day run from the place I was using to hide. No one knows about it and I never returned after that day. We can stock up on provisions and decide what to do from there. Unfortunately there won’t be a hospital for Jack.” Yes he knew why God had brought him on this trip and why he had lived when so many others had died. It was to help his three companions, who had become lost, find their way. With God’s help he would succeed and so would they.

Riddick had listened to the old man’s story, while he pretended to sleep. ‘But it’s not the same,’ he thought. ‘You didn’t have to worry that you might hurt your woman in a moment of anger! All you had to do was try to keep her safe from others, and you failed you old hypocrite! And that bull crap about being stronger together was an old man’s dreams.’ Riddick knew that he who traveled alone, traveled fastest and safest. Never have anything or anyone in your life that you couldn’t leave behind at moments notice, had always been his motto, and had saved his life on more than one occasion.

He closed his eyes, and tried to will himself to sleep. It was going to be another hard day and he had learned too many truths, in too short a time. Fuck the Company, and fuck doddering old men who were trying to relive their past. But most of all fuck Carolyn Fry, with her big blue eyes, and tough exterior. She had made him want, like he had never wanted in his life!

Yeah, fuck her, but as the thought came, it changed, and memories of her body moving against his lulled him toward sleep. She was nobody’s fuck; with her it was all pleasure, passion and sweetness. His last waking thought was, ‘maybe this was all a cold sleep dream and he would wake up in a cryo tube on the Hunter Gratznia, chained, with a bit between his teeth.’ The thought hurt, but then, at least he’d know who he was, and all this would have been for nothing.

………………………….

Three days later the small skiff negotiated a little known wormhole that was located just outside of Hydria’s reach. It tossed them out into a region of space that was far from Company influence, and close to the boarders of territory controlled by a race of methane breathing aliens.

For the occupants of the ship it had been a difficult three days. They had enough drinking water to last them for a week, thanks to the hard work of Imam’s boys back at the abandon settlement. But food was limited to the few ration bars that were left from the Hunter-Gratznia’s survival kit. Environmentals on the shuttle worked well, but in an attempt to conserve fuel, they had kept life support at a minimum.

Once they had decided to head for Imam’s unknown planet, convincing Carolyn that she would have to stay behind, while the others assessed the damage that had been done by the removal of the black box from the H-G, was the hard part. She finally gave in when she realized her presences would put the others at risk, and Imam promised he would return for her as soon as it was safe. She missed the look that traveled between the two men, who knew it would never be safe for her to live in Company controlled space again.

Riddick had reverted to his former self. Usually speaking only when spoken to, then usually with a wise crack. He didn’t come within two feet of Fry, but she often turned and found him watching her with shined eyes that burned with a need that was frightening. She had become jumpy and tense, as his eyes silently followed her every move. When she would turn to confront him, he would paste a wiseass grin on his face and dare her to say something. They both felt the lose of the other, but neither was willing to risk a full out confrontation to try and clear the air.

The night before they entered the wormhole, Riddick had the watch and Imam slept soundly in his usual spot on the bench beside Jack’s cryo-tube, his hand resting on the plastiglass. Carolyn tossed and turned, unable to sleep. She felt it was the act of a coward who deserted her crew to let them leave her in safety, while they faced off with the Company, if the box should be discovered missing. And the idea of never seeing Richard again was tearing her apart. Now she remembered why she didn’t indulge in casual affairs, it was too dangerous to the heart.

Looking around to make sure that the Holyman was sleeping she got up and quietly made her way to the cockpit and slid into the co-pilot’s seat. She didn’t expect Richard to acknowledge her; he avoided her at all cost, since his argument with Imam that had sent her sprawling on the deck, but she needed some answers and he was the only one who could help her.

“Richard, I need your advice.” She looked out the view screen rather than see him refuse to look at her. “Am I really in that much danger? Couldn’t I just hide out somewhere on New Mecca until this all blows over?”

“You want my professional opinion?” The sarcasm in his voice cut like a knife. “As a spook, that is?”

“Yes, I guess that’s what I’m asking.” Her chin jutted out, as anger fought with pain.

“I figure it’ll take ‘em ‘bout a year to find the Hunter-G, after that, it’ll be touch and go for us. They’ll have spooks watchin’ Jack and Imam, but they should be okay unless somethin’ goes wrong. A large group of them’ll go over every inch of that planet lookin’ for the box, with any luck, they’ll wake a few sleepin’ monsters. It’ll make the Holyman’s story a lot easier to believe. But you’re a different matter, if they find ya, they’ll kill ya and it won’t be pretty and it won’t be quick. Then they’ll start huntin’ Jack, Imam and possibly me.”

“But why? Couldn’t I tell them that I took the box, and that no one else knew their precious secret? Then they’d leave you three alone?” She was being backed into a corner, again and hated it.

“Once they discovered that they’d been lied to, they wouldn’t believe anythin’ ya said. The black boxes are top security. Everybody talks ‘bout ‘um, but no body believes they’re real, most successful camouflage in the universe. It’s like Imam said, ‘the devil’s best trick was convincing the world he didn’t exist.’ If ya saw the devil, he ain’t gonna let you live to tell about it.” Riddick looked at the woman beside him, her legs pulled up in the seat of her chair and her arms wrapped around her them. She looked small and frightened, he hated that he needed to do that to her, but it was necessary for her survival.

“Okay, I get the picture,” she whispered, past the lump in her throat.

“I’m sorry, Carolyn, I never should ‘a taken the box. At the time the consequences didn’t matter.” At all costs she had to remain hidden. The monsters on the planet back there would have given her a kinder death than spooks looking for answers. This was one more thing to add to the pile of guilt he felt regarding Carolyn Fry.

“It’s all right Richard, we needed the information stored there and the star charts on this skiff are hopelessly out of date. We wouldn’t have been able to figure out where we were, if you hadn’t.” She was resigned to her fate. At least living out the next few years in the back of beyond, would keep her from making a fool of herself over the man beside her.

They sat in silence for a long time; both glad the terrible tension was gone for a while. “I was gonna use Johns’s name once we get outta here, but now that I think about it, the bastard is too well known, besides it sticks in my gut to use that name.”

“So Richard B Riddick is really dead then?” Carolyn angled her head to watch him.

“Yup, killed by the monsters, and eaten, no remains left behind.”

“I had thought of using Shazza’s name, when I get otta here. I don’t think she would mind, and I’d like to know that she’s remembered.” She smiled as she thought how hard the settler woman had worked on the Sandcat. “Besides, no one looks into the face of a free settler.”

“You have a point there.” Riddick shrugged. “Do I look like a Zeke?”

“More than you realize.” Carolyn laughed softly. “Shazza told me that when she met him, he was a Corbinite miner. In fact, he had planned on getting his eyes shined so he could get ahead in the business. He gave it all up to travel the outlaying territories, with her. They were always moving further and further out, prospecting to earn their way until they found a place where they wanted to settle down. And according to the manifest, his last name was Richards.”

“Ya don’t say?” He smiled. “Yeah, that’s a much better fit than Johns!”

Carolyn fell asleep in the co-pilot’s seat, glad for Richard’s companionship, again. When Imam woke her for her watch, she was surprised to find that someone had reclined her chair and covered her with a blanket. She looked into the back of the skiff at the large man sleeping there, and knew without a doubt, he had shown her one last kindness.

She smiled and swallowed the lump in her throat. He had burst into her life and set her emotions aflame. At the moment she would settle for the peace they had found last night. Anything was better than the terrible antagonism that had been between them the last few days. If they were able to part as friends, then there would be only the good memories to keep with her over the years.

……………………….

Four hours later they were in orbit of a small cloud covered planet that was the third from its yellow sun. If they believed the information that their scanners sent back, it was R class, incompatible with human life, but Imam told a different story.

Twenty-five years ago, he had crashed after getting sucked into an uncharted wormhole while trying to escape Hydra’s pull. He found a sparsely populated paradise where the residents were friendly, but uninterested in the happenings outside their world. They lived life close to the land, using solar, wind or waterpower to sustain them. But they lived well and enjoyed life, while telling legends of a long ago planet, which had suffered a fate they were determined to protect theirs from.

Imam believed they were the decedents of the few people who had escaped from Cassandra in the final days before her destruction. The original settlers had done everything in their power to keep from repeating the mistakes that had destroyed their world. Even the technology that was used to hide them had been converted to solar hundreds of years ago.

It only took them half a day to gather provisions and get what they needed from the local village, which was in a small valley 20 miles from the house that Imam had built in his youth. Carolyn was made to feel welcome, and told that she could join them in the village, anytime she chose. All that was expected of her was to live in peace with the people and to respect the land.

Imam had created a home on a rock cliff overlooking a huge green ocean. Though the buildings were roughened by weather, they were safe, and blended in with the centuries old forest that surrounded them on three sides. Game was plentiful, and among the towering old trees there bushes rich with berries, nuts and strange fruits. All of which Carolyn was assured were edible.

The smaller of the two buildings was a work area. Two walls were covered with stacked cured wood, for the fireplaces. But of most interest to Carolyn was a two man craft that sat in the corner, under a dust cover. All markings had been removed from it, and it was badly in need of repair. Though it was as old as the skiff they had made their escape in, its technology was much more advanced. Richard recognized it for what it was: the craft that was flown by the Spook Squad of an earlier era. Imam had been telling them the truth!

They helped Carolyn pull off the covers of the solar gathering units, so she would have power for the coming night. As she worked her stomach heaved, and she blamed it on the fact that if she closed her eyes, she could see herself back in the Coring room performing the same tasks. She kept repeating to herself, that she was safe; there were no monsters here.

Both men would have liked to have stayed longer and made sure she was well settled, especially when they realized how pale and quiet she had become. But time was a luxury they didn’t have. Even if they snuck back through the wormhole they had used to get there, they were still two weeks from the Khyber Pass, a well-guarded route to New Mecca. Jack’s condition hadn’t gotten any worse, but she wasn’t getting better, either. She needed modern medical help, before too much more time elapsed. No one knew what the long-term effects of cold sleep were on a badly injured person. The longer she was kept in stasis, the more likely she would sustain permanent damage, even death.

………………………..

“You’ll be safe here.” Richard and Carolyn walked back through the woods to the small clearing where the skiff was parked. Imam had gone ahead to stow the provisions, and keep an eye on Jack. “I’ve destroyed the black box, so it’ll never be found, and lead them back here to you.”

“I’ll be just fine.” She smiled, but it didn’t reach her eyes. She knew she was going to miss him terribly and it was tearing her apart.

Ten feet from the clearing he stopped. “I can’t stay with you. Don’t you understand that?” He didn’t know who the hell he was, or what he really wanted, though he suspected that she held all the answered.

“I know, Richard.” She looked up at him, and hoped he couldn’t see what she was feeling. She had to bite her lip to keep from saying all she wanted to say to him. The thought of seeing rejection close down his expression, when she told him what she felt, gave her the resolve to stay silent. “I have no claim on you.”

“It’s not that and you know it.” He ran his hand against her cheek, needing to feel her skin against his. “It’s that you wouldn’t be safe with me. I’m nothin but trouble. I can change my name, but I’m still Richard B. Riddick.

“I know exactly who you are.” She wished he’d pull his goggles off so she could see his eyes once before he left. It was dark enough in the shadow of the forest; it wouldn’t be painful for him. “And he isn’t the same man who crashed on that planet, just like I’m not the same woman.”

“Listen to me.” He grabbed her shoulders, wanting to shake some sense into her, but ended up pulling her close enough so he could feel her breath on his neck. “You’d end up dead, by some merc that came hunting me, or someone out for revenge, cause I can’t stay on this backwater planet.”

“Richard, it’s okay,” she caressed his cheek and smiled. “I wouldn’t be afraid.”

“Well I would be!” He couldn’t believe he’d admitted it. It felt as if those words had stripped his emotions naked, and he was standing in front of the universe with his ass hanging out. But once started, he had to finish it. “God Carolyn, I’d die for you.”

“Let me see your eyes.” She whispered as she pulled his goggles onto his forehead. All she saw was her own reflections in their shiny gray depths.

“Ya find what you was looking for?” He had trouble forming the words. Her scent was making him hard as he watched her face inches from his. If he didn’t pull away soon, he knew he never would.

“UmmHmm,” she nodded her head and stood on her tiptoes. “I know you’d die for me, I know you would.” She kissed his hard mouth, as tears rolled down her cheeks. I just wish you’d try for me! As the words echoed through her mind she turned quickly and fought to get back her control. “I love you Richard.” She whispered into the wind as she ran away from him.

Had she said it, had she really said it? No one had ever told Riddick that they loved him. It took his breath away and made him dizzy. He stumbled the last 20 yards to the skiff and pulled himself aboard.

“What’s wrong?” Imam watched as he slouched in the pilot’s seat.

“Nothin! Lets get the fuck outta here!” His mood had turned foul, and he didn’t want to get into it with the Holyman.

“If you leave her, you’ll be sorry for the rest of your life.”

“Don’t stick your nose in where it ain’t wanted! I gotta do this. It would be wrong in so many ways if I stayed.” Riddick began the pre-flight check.

“Wait,” Imam put his hand on the much larger one of his companion. “A 20th Century Earth philosopher by the name of Rumi once said, ‘out beyond ideas of wrong doing and right doing there is a field; I’ll meet you there.’ Wouldn’t you be willing to settle for a forest on the edge of a large ocean?”

……………………

Carolyn had almost made it back to the cabin when the ground shook and the deafening sound of the skiff taking off thundered overhead. It stopped her in her tracks and made her slide to the ground. He did it. He really left me. Tears ran down her face as she sobbed uncontrollably.

“Carolyn?” She snapped her head around at the sound of a deep gravelly voice that jump-started her heart. “Oh Babe!” He knelt beside her, his hands holding her damp face. In an attempt to keep her from being hurt, he had caused her pain her in ways he didn’t understand. With the exceptions of hate and anger, emotions were almost foreign territory.

“You didn’t leave me.” She whispered as she wrapped her arms around him and kissed his neck and face. “I meant what I said, I do love you.”

“Shhh Babe,” he pulled her to him and enjoyed the feel of her body against his. “If I’d left you, it would have cut out a piece of me that I didn’t know existed.”

“I’ve missed holding you.” She was lost in the joy of being able to touch him freely, again.

He made short work of her shirt, and his fingers moved over her silky skin, until she moaned in delight. With hands that shook, she pulled off his shirt, and she nipped at his shoulder impatiently. “Easy Babe, we’ve got a lifetime for this.”

“It’s not enough time!” Her growl was impatient and sad.

Suddenly he realized she was right. No matter how much time they had together, it would be too short. He held her face between his hands, and was shaken to the core. Maybe he knew more about love than he thought he did?


In The Years To Follow

That’s how it happened, in a matter of days my life was changed. I went from Jack the run away kid to Jackie a child who was loved and cared for. It took Imam two weeks to get us to New Mecca, and I was in the hospital and recovering from my injuries another month after that.

Imam told me the same story he told the authorities, that Carolyn and Richard had died in the last run through the night. He felt it was safer, the less I knew, until things calmed down. They left me pretty much alone since I was so sick, and as they put it, ‘just a kid.’ After all what would a delicate young girl like me know about a crazed murderer like Riddick? And since I was having terrible nightmares about the monsters, my doctors kept them away from me as much as they could.

In less than a year, we heard that the H-G was discovered. The news bands were full of the story. Made all the juicer by the massacre of the team that was sent to attempt salvage. Somehow they must have awakened the monsters, since there was no mention of an eclipse. The Company took a stunning loss, and gave the planet a D3 designation. It meant, no worthwhile resources, and extremely hostile aliens. It was understood that no Company ship would dock there, under penalty of heavy fines.

Richard had been right about the Company, though. Even with the heavy loss of life, they covered all their bases. Less than a month later we discovered that our boarding house, The Sanctuary, was being watched. When we realized that not all of our boarders were what they pretended to be, Imam finally told me the truth about what had happened the year before. As long as we were being watched, we resigned ourselves to never seeing Richard and Carolyn again.

Life continued as always, despite the presences of Company spies. I kept going to classes and helping Imam run the inn. He kept teaching at the school for off-worlders, and making a home for us, as well as those who were visiting Mecca City.

It was during the year of the watchers that we received the first of the letters. They always came by the pilot of a cargo ship. The first one told us that ‘Zeke and Shazza’ were doing fine, but had decided to head out to see what was beyond the next star system. They sent their love and said they would write. They must had gotten the old runabout working. It made my heart glad to think that they weren’t planet bound any longer.

After that the letters came about every six months, sometimes from strange places with names we’d never heard of; sometimes from places that were on the frontier and just opening up to settlers. One thing the letters all had in common, Carolyn and Richard were together and they were happy. The last letter we got, about a month ago, said they were going to be heading home for a while, because at the time the letter was written, they had an arrival due any day. I like to think of them out there among the stars. Richard, Carolyn and their new arrival.

Imam taught me that I could be loved, but they taught me that love between a man and a woman was a wonderful thing. I don’t know what each of them gave up to be with the other, and Imam doesn’t speak much about what went on in the skiff after I was hurt, but what ever it was, it was nothing compared to what they would have given up if they hadn’t stayed together. I had watched them while trapped on the planet when we crashed. They fought the alien monsters so Imam and I could live and they fought Johns who would have torn them apart for his own pleasure. But I think the biggest battles they had to fight were within themselves. I know they won, or they wouldn’t be together.

The End